Homemade Butterscotch Sauce

While in Denver, I found time to visit the Savory Spice Shop. Oh. My. Gosh! What a heavenly place! I came away 50 bucks poorer, but with a sack full of wonderful stuff. Vanilla bean paste to make creme brulee, Indian seasoning blends (Baharat and Vindaloo), a very aromatic Cambodian lemongrass curry seasoning blend, smoked sea salt (wonderful on tomatoes), achiote paste, tamarind paste, organic ceylon cinnamon and butterscotch extract. The cinnamon will totally knock your socks off. Plain jane off the shelf cinnamon usually smells good, but tastes bitter or like dirt when you take a dab on your finger. This stuff not only smells totally amazing, it tastes sweet. It was the cinnamon and butterscotch extract that inspired a late night run to the store for the ingredients for this sauce.

My mom was hankering for the butterscotch sauce of her childhood. Something fairly runny so that once you pour it on ice cream it doesn't turn into a thick slug that must be cut with the spoon, and something without corn syrup. I also avoid using corn syrup if possible, so after browsing on the internet through several recipes, I finally found one that didn't list it in the ingredients. I modified it slightly to incorporate the butterscotch extract, but am interested in making it the original way posted to compare the two. This is good stuff. I caught my dad spooning it right out of the jar :).

Butterscotch Sauce (found on CDKitchen)

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter -- cut up

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter -- for browning

In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar over medium heat but do not stir. The sugar will melt and the mixture will come to a boil. Watch it carefully, using a pastry brush to wash down the crystals from the sides of the pan, until the mixture turns a deep amber color.

Add the 6 tablespoons butter and stir over low heat. Add heavy cream and stir well, then add the condensed milk and stir once more. Bring to a boil and let the mixture bubble for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat. In a small saucepan, cook the 2 tablespoons butter until it foams and browns. Whisk the butter into the sauce. Warm the sauce over low heat before spooning it onto a sundae.

***Here's what I changed. I used all 8 T. of butter at the beginning, then stirred in a teaspoon of butterscotch extract with the cream and condensed milk.

I would highly recommend trying a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream with a generous drizzle of this sauce and a sprinkle of potent cinnamon on top. Very, very delicious.