How to Make Butterscotch Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, not ultra-pasteurized
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

1. Butterscotch sauce takes about a half an hour from the first step to the last. Before turning on the heat, set out the cream and brown sugar beside the stove, already measured. Once the sugar starts cooking, this moves quickly, and you do not want to be searching the kitchen midstream.
2. Set a heavy bottomed stainless steel 2 quart saucepan over low to medium heat and melt the butter. When the butter is almost fully melted, pour in all the dark brown sugar at one time, then use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar is evenly moistened.
3. Continue cooking, stirring only now and then, until the mixture changes from sandy and coarse to glossy and lava-like. Scrape into the edges of the pan as you stir, and pay attention as the texture shifts. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Just before the cream goes in, the caramelizing brown sugar should start to move and look more fluid, rather than like heavy damp sand.
5. Pour in all the cream at once, then trade the spoon for a whisk. Reduce the heat slightly and whisk until the cream is worked into the sugar mixture.
6. Once the sauce looks smooth and consistent, bring the heat back to medium. Continue cooking for 10 minutes total, whisking every few minutes, or cook until a digital or candy thermometer reads 225 degrees F.
7. When the sauce has boiled for its 10 minutes, turn off the heat. Let it sit for a minute or two, then pour it into a heatproof storage vessel, such as a stainless steel or glass bowl. Leave it until it cools to room temperature.
8. Once the butterscotch liquid has reached room temperature, taste a small spoonful. This gives you a sense of the cooked brown sugar and butter before the final seasoning turns it into butterscotch.
9. Whisk in half the salt and vanilla extract, then taste again. Continue adding more salt and vanilla extract until the flavor tastes like real butterscotch.
10. Butterscotch makes a fantastic topping for ice cream.
11. Refrigerate the butterscotch sauce in a non-reactive container with a snug lid only once it has cooled completely. It will keep for one month refrigerated, assuming it does not disappear as soon as it is cool and seasoned the way you like it.