You may remember my post about homemade chocolate sauce and how easy and delicious it is.  Well, I have recently discovered homemade butterscotch sauce. It’s also super easy to make and yummy, too. You for sure don’t need to ever buy that horrible stuff in the jar from the grocery store anymore.

You start with ¼ cup butter, ½ cup brown sugar, and ½ cup heavy cream. I used dark brown sugar because that’s what I had on hand, but light brown sugar would make it look lighter and more like the butterscotch we are used to. Put it all in a pan and cook it on medium heat, stirring till it’s  melted and combined.

Bring the mixture to a low boil and cook it for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The flat spatula worked great for this part.

After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and stir in 1/8th to 1/4th tsp of salt (I used 1/4th and thought it was a tiny bit too salty), and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Let it cool down, then spoon it over some ice cream — perfect! This recipe makes enough for four small sundaes, but you can easily double it if you need more.

What’s the difference between butterscotch and caramel? Butterscotch is basically brown sugar, butter, and cream mixed together and cooked, while caramel is white sugar cooked with water, then butter and cream added at the end. Caramel is harder and more dangerous to make because it is easy to accidentally burn the sugar and water mixture (there is nothing that smells worse or is harder to clean up than burnt sugar) or to have it bubble out of the pan and burn you. Butterscotch, on the other hand,  is a cinch to make and pretty hard to screw up. Butterscotch also doesn’t get stuck in your teeth like caramel does.

What’s your favorite ice cream topping? Do you make your own or use store-bought?