I decided I wanted to make butterscotch sauce the other day, because I’d never made it, and honestly, I’d never tasted it before, and I was all prepared to regale you with the glories of homemade butterscotch sauce until I saw the picture above and instead feel the need to point out that Harry Potter has appeared in my food, and I now have no choice but to call this ‘butterbeer sauce’, and pour it on sundaes and fresh green apples and call everything wizard food.
Seriously. Do you guys see him? In the spoon? Right int he middle. He’s there. I promise. Look:
SEE?! See it?!
It’s a sign. A sign that this is, in fact, Butterbeer Sauce and will henceforth and forevermore make all foods it encounters magical. The end.
You might be asking yourself what makes this butterscotch -beer sauce and not caramel. There’s one simple answer: brown sugar. And a little vanilla. And there’s the magic, of course. 😉
Step this way, wizards, witches, and muggles alike, and see just how easy it is to make butterscotchy butterbeer goodness.
When you start cooking the brown sugar and water together, the mixture goes through about four stages of bubbling. At first it will be mostly foamy, with a few larger bubbles. After just a couple of minutes, the foaminess subsides, and the mixture becomes predominately very large bubbles. This stage also lasts for just a couple of minutes. Next, the mixture settles down to a mixture of large and small bubbles. This stage lasts the longest, at around four minutes. During the last couple of minutes of cooking, the mixture cooks down to a thicker consistency, with more foaminess like the beginning stage.
You can also see in the images above a color change from the first image (top left) to the final image (bottom right). It’s a very slight change from a deep brown or amber to a deeper brown or amber. This isn’t as obvious of a change as when you make plain caramel sauce, which goes from clear to light amber, but it’s still important to note.
After stirring in the goodness that is heavy cream, butter, and vanilla, plus a dash of salt, you’re left with rich, smooth, amazingly irresistible butterscotch sauce.
Don’t be intimidated by homemade butterscotch (or caramel sauce). It seems scary, what with the boiling sugar and all, but it’s actually unbelievably easy, and definitely worth it! Plus, it takes less than fifteen minutes to throw together, so there’s no excuses about not having the time either. 😉
I hope you guys will give this a shot, drizzle it over some ice cream, throw on some magical star shaped sprinkles and call it a butterbeer sundae. 🙂
Enjoy!
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt, crushed, to taste
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan, stirring to combine.
- Without stirring, bring to a boil over high heat, swirling the ingredients in the pan occasionally. Continue boiling until the mixture reaches an very deep amber color, about 8-10 minutes. The color will only be slightly darker than it is when you first start cooking it (see image collage in post).
- Remove from heat and very carefully (the mixture will quickly expand and sputter) add the cream in a slow steady stream, being sure to stir constantly. Once combined, add the butter and continue stirring until it is completely melted and combined.
- Add the salt to taste and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Cool to room temperature before using.
This sounds delicious! And I can totally see Harry in the first photo – magical indeed!
This sauce sounds great and would love to try. Do you have a printable recipe??
Tks x
Not at this time. I recently installed a new design, and I’m still working on getting all of the bells and whistles installed. 😉
Hey you changed your blog design! It’s so cute!
It most certainly looks magical!!! Love this recipe