Butterscotch Sauce!

On a night out with my friends several years ago, the question "If you were an ice-cream, what flavour would you be?" came up, and mine was butterscotch by general consensus. Recently, this came up again with an entirely different group of people, and the answer was still butterscotch! I suppose I haven't changed much... sickly sweet, burns the tongue if you don't take your time and wait for it to cool, slightly salty, drizzles smooth when warm... yeah, I kinda like being butterscotch.

But up until now, I have never made butterscotch! I've always relied on storebought butterscotch chips, but for some reason, when I woke up today, I just wanted to make my own butterscotch sauce. So I'll share the surprisingly easy recipe here.

Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
Yield: 2 cups

• 60g butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• Pinch of sea salt

1. In a saucepan (preferably one with a rounded bottom), heat the butter on medium until melted
2. When the butter has mostly melted, add the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon for a few minutes
3. When the texture resembles the picture in step 3 above (sandy, stir-able, but not too runny) sub your wooden spatula for a whisk and move onto step 4
4. Turn the heat down to low and gradually add in the cream while whisking to incorporate steadily, you don't want to let it curdle as the cooler milk hits the hot sugar and butter
5. When all the milk has been added, turn the heat up to medium again and let it boil for up to 10 minutes, whisking occasionally so it doesn't burn and blends nicely
6. Remove from heat, let it cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a glass bowl and stir in the vanilla and salt. Add more salt if you want a saltier flavour, but I like just a little touch to bring out the flavours

Serve over a warm slice of home made sticky date pudding! Or chocolate cake! Or on a cracker!