This butterscotch sauce is silky smooth with a sweet, buttery taste! It’s a quick and easy homemade treat that elevates any ice cream, pie or dessert.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
- Better than store-bought: Make butterscotch sauce at home with only 5 ingredients! It’s rich and creamy plus sweet and salty with a deep caramel taste.
- Pourable liquid gold: It’s so good drizzled on no churn vanilla ice cream!
- Different than caramel: If you love caramel sauce, you will love butterscotch! The two are similar yet different as brown sugar adds a deeper flavor to butterscotch.
Recipe Ingredients
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Brown sugar: I used dark brown sugar for a more pronounced butterscotch flavor, but you can use light brown sugar.
- Unsalted butter: If you use salted butter your sauce may be too salty. If you only have salted, just leave out the salt.
- Heavy cream: Heavy whipping cream or heavy cream that has at least 35-36% fat.
- Vanilla extract
- Salt: Kosher salt balances the sweet sauce. Table salt or flaky sea salt can be used.
How to Make Butterscotch Sauce
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat then add brown sugar, heavy cream and salt. Bring to a light boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to medium-low and allow mixture to come to a boil, this will take about 5 minutes. If you would like to use a candy thermometer, cook sauce until it reaches 220°F. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Recipe Tips
- Prevent curdling: I like to use a heavy bottomed saucepan that distributes heat evenly.
- Avoid overcooking the sauce: This will cause the sauce to get too thick, almost like toffee if you overcook or turn the heat too high.
- Type of milk: Double cream or table cream both work but do not use whole milk or half and half as the butterscotch recipe will not taste the same.
- Serving suggestions: I love butterscotch topping on homemade vanilla ice cream but it’s equally as good on banana bars, apple cake or homemade brownies, too.
More homemade dessert toppings to try include homemade strawberry sauce and blueberry sauce.
More Dessert Sauce Recipes
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Butterscotch Sauce
Video
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt butter with brown sugar: In a medium saucepan, melt the 4 Tablespoons butter over medium heat. Stir in the 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a light boil, stirring occasionally. This will take about 3 minutes.
- Cook the sauce: Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow it to come to a boil, stirring frequently. Be careful no to let it burn. This will take about 5 minutes. If you would like to use a candy thermometer, cook it until it reaches 220°F.
- Stir in vanilla and cool: Remove from heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cool for about 5 minutes, the transfer to a jar for serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Recipe FAQs
The main difference between butterscotch and caramel is the type of sugar used in the recipe. Butterscotch is made with brown sugar while caramel is made with granulated white sugar and corn syrup.
You must let the butter scotch boil for 3 minutes otherwise it will not thicken properly.
Store in an airtight covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Reheat in 10 second increments in the microwave or on the stove.
Categorized as: American, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Toppings
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
