Easy Butterscotch Sauce Recipe

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Bring your best homemade desserts to a whole new level of delicious with our easy butterscotch sauce recipe! With just 4 ingredients and 4 minutes of cook time, this will be your new favorite easy gourmet dessert topping. Trust me!

Simple homemade butterscotch sauce made with butter, brown sugar, and cream is the best for topping ice cream, pies, galettes, and even pound cake. It's so easy to make and delicious!

Jump to:

• Best Butterscotch Sauce Recipe
• What is butterscotch?
• Butterscotch vs. Caramel
• Butterscotch Ingredients
• How to Make Butterscotch Sauce
• Do I need to refrigerate butterscotch syrup?
• How long will butterscotch sauce keep?
• Can this dessert sauce be frozen?
• Uses for Butterscotch Sauce
• Butterscotch Sauce Recipe
• Reviews

Best Butterscotch Sauce Recipe

I first fell in love with butterscotch when my grandma introduced me to hard butterscotch candies as a child. Is it a requirement for all grandparents to have butterscotch candies hidden around their home to bribe grandchildren with? I think so.

Over the years, my obsession with butterscotch caught up with my love for cooking… and I found out how EASY it is to make butterscotch sauce from scratch!

It's a great way to get your sweet tooth fix. Make this easy butterscotch sauce recipe at home, and you'll want to top every dessert with it. And I mean EVERY dessert. It only takes 4 minutes and 4 ingredients to make, and it tastes unbelievably good, so why not?

I made this tonight and it’s ahhhmazing!! Fast, easy and incredibly delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe, I’ll never buy the stuff in the jars again! (That was a lot of exclamation points…it’s THAT good!)

Jennifer

What is butterscotch?

To put it simply, butterscotch is a confection you make by melting butter with brown sugar.

Any butterscotch recipe sauce can include extra ingredients, like heavy cream, corn syrup, salt, and more, but the base is always butter and brown sugar.

Butterscotch vs. Caramel

The difference between butterscotch and caramel is that caramel sauce uses granulated sugar while butterscotch sauce uses brown sugar.

Using brown sugar allows for a richer, sweeter flavor than caramel. It's much like if you use brown sugar in place of granulated sugar when you're making cookies. The result is gooey and decadent.

In some cases, you can use butterscotch and caramel sauce in place of the other. But once you learn how to make butterscotch sauce as easily as this quick butterscotch sauce recipe, there's no reason to turn to anything else!

Sorry caramel, but butterscotch sauce will always be my favorite!

Butterscotch Ingredients

• butter
• brown sugar
• heavy cream
• pinch sea salt

How to Make Butterscotch Sauce

1. Combine 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, ⅓ cup light brown sugar, and ⅓ cup heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Stir until the butter melts and the ingredients fully combine.
3. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 4 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and add a pinch of sea salt.

Let your homemade butterscotch sauce cool a few minutes before serving, and enjoy!

I tried it! It came out delicious, so easy it is definitely a keeper!

Karen on Pinterest

Do I need to refrigerate butterscotch syrup?

Because our butterscotch recipe includes heavy cream, it should be refrigerated. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

When I tell you this is better than the store bought snickers one! Amazing!

Heidi on Pinterest

How long will butterscotch sauce keep?

Store it properly in the fridge, and butterscotch sauce will last up to a month.

But trust me - it won't last that long! It's too delicious! When you're ready to enjoy it, warm it up in a microwave-safe dish.

Can this dessert sauce be frozen?

Yes. You can freeze butterscotch sauce. Here are some tips:

• TIP #1: The heavy cream in the sauce will expand when frozen, so don’t use a glass container to store it in the freezer.
• TIP #2: You can’t go from frozen to eating. You’ll need to thaw the sauce first, then reheat it.

Uses for Butterscotch Sauce

This won’t come as any surprise, but I think the best way to use up your butterscotch sauce is in an ice cream sundae. 

You can also use it as a topping when decorating cakes or cupcakes. Mix it into a buttercream batter to make butterscotch buttercream, or eat it as is on fresh fruit! Butterscotch sauce is delicious for an apple dump cake, apple crisp, or even caramel apple empanadas.

This sauce is out-of-this-world delicious, with pumpkin crunch cake. Yum! I also love it on Banana Bread Waffles and Pumpkin Waffles for brunch!

You can even dip the rim of an apple pie sangria in this butterscotch sauce and boy oh boy, will that sangria taste amazing!

Love making your own sauces at home? We do, too. Try one of our favorite dessert sauces, strawberry sauce, next! It's amazing in our strawberry swirl cheesecake. And if you love cream cheese, my Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe is a must!

We'd love to know what you think of this butterscotch sauce recipe. Let us know if you try it out in the comments below! You can visit our Butterscotch Sauce Recipe 📌 on Pinterest too, and leave a comment with a photo of your favorite dessert to eat with this butterscotch sauce.

Try my White Chocolate Sauce next!