Butterscotch
A sweet, buttery confection or sauce made by cooking brown sugar with butter, often finished with cream, salt and vanilla.
- Fillings, creams, frostings and sauces
- England
Also called: butterscotch sauce
Butterscotch differs from caramel mainly in its sugar: caramel starts with white sugar cooked until it browns, while butterscotch starts with brown sugar, whose molasses gives it a deeper, toffee-like flavor. Butterscotch sauce is cooked only briefly; butterscotch candies are cooked to the soft- or hard-crack stage.
It is used as a sauce for ice cream, in puddings and pies, and in butterscotch chips for cookies.
Bake it at VanillaGoods
Tools for this
Farberware Stainless SaucepanA heavy base heats evenly so dairy and sugar don't scorch.See it on Amazon
ThermoWorks Thermapen ONEReads in about a second, so you can hit sugar and chocolate temperatures exactly.See it on Amazon
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Related entries
Sources
Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Science of Cooking: Candy-making Stages, Exploratorium (San Francisco science museum)
- Pantry Ponderings: Brown Sugar, K-State Research and Extension, Johnson County
- Success with Caramel, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach (AnswerLine)
- Butterscotch (Q2009326), Wikidata