Easy Butterscotch Sauce Recipe

Homemade butterscotch sauce is rich, smooth, and velvety with a buttery brown sugar flavor, hint of vanilla, and touch of salt for balance. This no-fail recipe only takes 10 minutes to whip up from start-to-finish!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Butterscotch Sauce, Butterscotch Sauce Recipe, Butterscotch Syrup, Butterscotch Syrup Recipe, How to Make Butterscotch

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 8

Servings servings

Calories 152kcal

Author Faith Gorsky

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Melt the sugar. Add the butter to a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, stir in the brown sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. (PRO TIP: Don't over-stir at this point; you're basically just trying to help evenly distribute the sugar so it can melt at the same rate.) Cook until the sugar is melted and the mixture is boiling, about 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the cream and cook until thickened. Carefully add the cream (it will bubble up), and stir to combine. Let it boil for about 3 to 5 minutes until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, stirring occasionally. (PRO TIP: It should reach 225F on a candy thermometer, but you don’t really need a candy thermometer to make this.)
Finish with vanilla. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Notes

Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is an acid, and we use it here to help prevent sugar crystallization. If you don’t have cream of tartar on hand or prefer not to use it, you can omit it and instead use 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice. And if you don’t have fresh lemon juice, this recipe will still work, you just have to be a bit more careful. If you start to see crystallization, add more water. You can brush the sides of the pan with water, or stir a couple tablespoons of water into the sauce. Once the water cooks off, the caramelization process will resume and it should have gotten rid of the crystallization.
To Help Prevent Crystallization: Don’t stir the mixture until it start to change color, which means the sugar is starting to caramelize.
Recipe Yield and Serving Size: This recipe makes about 18 tablespoons (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) total. Each serving is 2 tablespoons for a total of 9 servings.
Storage: Let this cool to room temperature, and then transfer it to a glass container with a lid. Store in the fridge for up to 2 months.
To Reheat: You can reheat this sauce in a double boiler on the stovetop or in 10-second increments in the microwave, stirring between each increment.

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