Dessert

Butterscotch Sauce

April  9, 2014

When she has the kitchen all to herself, Phyllis Grant of Dash and Bella cooks beautiful iterations of what solo meals were always meant to be: exactly what you want, when and where you want them.

Today: A comforting butterscotch sauce for when you don't feel like following the rules -- and for every cake, crêpe, and bowl of ice cream you make from here on out. 

Butterscotch Sauce from Food52

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We have a few hard and fast rules in our kitchen. You sit at the table to eat. Your napkin goes in your lap. No elbows on the table. Chew with your mouth closed. Keep the volume down. Don't double dip.

This way, my loves, if the Queen comes to visit, we'll be quite prepared. She likes things to be proper, you know. 

What queen, mom? From what country?

Oh. Any queen. From any country.

My friends do the same rigmarole, but they've brought it a bit more up-to-date by telling their children that they're learning the rules just in case there is a surprise visit from the Obamas. Adjust accordingly. 

The part I don't tell them is that if the Queen came to visit during the day, while they were off at school, she would find me sitting on the kitchen counter, double triple quadruple dipping my way through a jar of homemade butterscotch sauce.  

Butterscotch Sauce from Food52

Butterscotch Sauce

Makes a little over 1 1/2 cups

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 1/2 cups light or dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, halved, seeds scraped out
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

See the full recipe (and save it and print it) here.

Photos by Phyllis Grant 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Lina
    Lina
  • Girl in a Food Frenzy
    Girl in a Food Frenzy
  • Sodium Girl
    Sodium Girl
  • Phyllis Grant
    Phyllis Grant
Phyllis Grant is an IACP finalist for Personal Essays/Memoir Writing and a three-time Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist for her blog, Dash and Bella. Her essays and recipes have been published in a dozen anthologies and cookbooks including Best Food Writing 2015 and 2016. Her work has been featured both in print and online for various outlets, including Oprah, The New York Times, Food52, Saveur, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Tasting Table and Salon. Her memoir with recipes, Everything Is Out of Control, is coming out April 2020 from Farrar Straus & Giroux. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and two children.

5 Comments

Lina April 16, 2014
Unfortunately, I don't have corn syrup( Can I make it with another one?
 
Girl I. April 9, 2014
Life doesn't get any more decadent than a beautiful spoonful (or more,) of this!
 
Phyllis G. April 15, 2014
i agree!
 
Sodium G. April 9, 2014
Adjust accordingly. Love it.
 
Phyllis G. April 15, 2014
glad you liked that. it made my laugh.