Butterscotch Sauce

5 from 7 votes

This rich, decadent toffee or butterscotch sauce is remarkably easy to make and tastes great on so many things.

Pour it over ice cream, cakes, pudding, and custard or use it as a dip for a dessert and fruit board. The sauce thickens up as it cools down. If you want it thin and pourable just warm it up slightly.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: brown sugar caramel sauce, brown sugar sauce, butter toffee sauce, butterscotch sauce, caramel sauce with brown sugar, dessert, English toffee sauce, how to make butterscotch sauce, ice cream topping, sweets, toffee sauce

Servings: to 8 servings

Author: Dahn Boquist

Ingredients

½ cup 8 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream warmed slightly
1 tablespoon rum or Scotch whiskey optional
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in the sugar and salt. Cook over medium high heat for 3 to 4 minutes until the sugar turns a dark amber color.
Only stir occasionally during the first couple of minutes to distribute the heat evenly. When the mixture starts to get darker start to stir frequently.
When the mixture is a dark amber color, slowly pour in the cream while constantly whisking. If the it starts to bubble up too much stop pouring the cream and give the mixture a good whisk then start pouring slowly again.
Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the rum or whiskey, if using and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until the sauce is glossy.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Notes

Avoid stirring too frequently to prevent sugar crystals.
If the cream is warm it won’t bubble up as much when you add it to the sugar mixture.
Use a 2 to 3 quart saucepan so you have plenty of head space in case the sauce bubbles up when you add the cream.

Nutrition