Posted on 05/15/2013 11:50:30 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Butterscotch is going through something of a revival. So much so, that two Kitchen Window regular contributors wanted to write about it. Therefore, welcome to the more-than-you-ever-thought-you-needed-to-know-about-butterscotch special coverage. Today is the first in our two-part butterscotch series. Check in next week (May 22) for more recipes featuring this resurgent flavor.
A few years ago, I took my mother to a restaurant I was reviewing. During these dinners, I make emphatic suggestions ("eat this or no more free meals") as to what everyone should order, orchestrating the experience from appetizers to entrees to desserts. Love it or hate it, that's how things are done when you dine with a reviewer.
But when I asked my mother to order the butterscotch pudding, she looked at me as if I had just requested that she order a fetal duck egg. Yes, butterscotch was apparently even considered uncool — and perhaps disgusting — by a septuagenarian who would happily devour a black-licorice pipe. Yet four years later, she still vividly remembers that butterscotch pudding and talks about it with reverence. Silky in texture and deep in flavor, that pudding has haunted us.
Last year, I was asked to bring an ice cream topping to a friend's for Hanukkah. After a quick web search, I quickly settled on butterscotch sauce, eager to re-create something akin to that pudding experience. It was a huge hit, especially when a bolt of culinary lightning struck and I got the idea to dip the warm latkes into the sauce. (Mark my words, there will be an official latke-sundae experiment at some point.)
Before ever having to compete with the likes of Snickers and Fun Dip, this candy that is generally softer than toffee and deeper in flavor than caramel is said to have its roots in Doncaster, England — not Scotland, as some believed. It was in this Yorkshire town that Samuel Parkinson reportedly began making the confection in 1817, and his butterscotch came to be known as the butterscotch for generations of Brits.
But I've seen glimmers of a comeback. Washington, D.C.-based pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac, who creates the desserts for Neighborhood Restaurant Group, says they always have butterscotch on hand. "We put it on our sticky toffee pudding," she says. "I've got it also on the doughnut here." That's a bourbon-butterscotch doughnut topped with house-cured bacon found at the restaurant group's newest venture, GBD Fried Chicken and Fresh Doughnuts, in case you were wondering. "Everybody does it with maple, but I wanted to do something different."
She's even toying with the idea of a strawberry dessert with a white miso and butterscotch sauce for spring — giving it a very modern twist and bucking the idea that butterscotch is a heavy, cool-weather flavor. "It's definitely something I'm playing around with a lot."
MacIsaac says the difference between butterscotch and caramel is that butterscotch recipes traditionally involve brown sugar and butter, whereas you can make caramel just by cooking white sugar until it, well, caramelizes. "Caramel has a more burnt flavor, but butterscotch has more of a sweeter flavor because it doesn't caramelize as much," she says.
Surprisingly, Scotch isn't a traditional addition to butterscotch, but it certainly is a welcome flavor booster. Dark rum also achieves that desired depth. "I just happen to love that layer of flavor that alcohol gives to things, so it's not just sweet," says MacIsaac. "I like bourbon, that's my personal preference — specifically, Maker's Mark."
And while MacIsaac makes her living creating sweet stuff — cupcakes, doughnuts, artistically plated desserts — she can't resist the allure of butterscotch's most humble preparation: butterscotch pudding.
Simple or fancy, we'll take it any way we can get it.
A better assessment to the value of a meal comes when you actually PAY for the foods you are eating and whether you are willing to come back to try other enticing items even if you had mixed feelings the first time you dined there.
Same comes with movie, concert, album, and vacation reviews.
When a reader is parting with hard earned cash, they should expect satisfaction comparable to what is paid out.
I loved scotch!
Why don’t you tell her what you really think of her???
Sorry, did read the sarcasm. We’re on the same page.
I’m too gentle a person.
{sigh} I miss Gahan Wilson so much.
Here you go—you can make your own:
1 C packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 Cups milk
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 C butter, 1 tsp vanilla
In small bowl mix together Brown Sugar, Corn Starch, and Salt.
Add enough milk to make a thick past. Bring rest of the milk to a boil, stir in the brown sugar mix, return to boil and cook for 1 minute.
Place egg yolks in small pan, and temper the yolks by quickly stirring in about 1/4 of hot milk mixture. Add to the pan with the rest of the milk, and stir well. (I use a whisk for stirring)
Cook—stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in butter.
Pour into bowls, let cool slightly and enjoy.
OR: buy a package of Jello butterscotch pudding mix and follow package instructions.
Works much better than my recipe of two parts butter to one part scotch...
ROTFLMAO!
Neat!
I thought Elmo was facing major prison time.
“The wife got a hankering for some on her ice cream a couple weeks back. Had to go to five stores to find it!”
So just make it...beats going to five stores, and beats Smuckers too, IMO...
Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
Yield: About 2 cups
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fleur de sel (or other flaky sea salt)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt, and whisk until well blended. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat slightly and gently boil for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract. Serve warm or at room temperature (the sauce will thicken as it cools). Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and re-warm before using.
(Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
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