Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding magic – one batter transforms into a warm butterscotch pudding cake AND butterscotch sauce! The cake is fudgy and moist, and the sauce is rich and indulgent, just like a homemade caramel sauce.
This recipe is the butterscotch version of everybody’s favourite Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding. Just as quick, just as easy, just as loved!
Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding
There’s something childishly satisfying about self saucing puddings. I love the magic of it – one batter making a warm pudding plus a sauce.
And I love the cosiness of puddings. Put a delicately crafted chocolate masterpiece next to a “rustic” bowl of apple crumble topped with a melted mess of ice cream, and I’d choose the crumble any day and twice on Sunday.
So – 6 tier cakes you may never find on here (2 tier is my limit, it seems).
Rustic puddings and cosy crumbles? You will find lots of them here. Aforementioned Apple Crumble has much company, including Strawberry Crumble, Caramel Baked Apples, Sticky Date Pudding, Bread and Butter Pudding and of course, everybody’s favourite Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding.
And this Butterscotch Pudding is the latest to join the gang!
How to make Butterscotch Pudding
I promised you quick and easy, and I did not exaggerate.
Essentially, what you do is make one simple batter, then sprinkle the top with a sugar-cornflour mixture and cover with hot water. Then as it bakes, the sugar-cornflour mixture sinks to the bottom (I like to imagine all sorts of wonderful things happen as it passes through the pudding sponge) and it bubbles away and thickens under the pudding as it rises into a fluffy, moist cake.
It’s like…. magic!!
I love how it looks so innocent with it comes out of the oven… no hint of all that gorgeous butterscotch sauce underneath!!
What goes in Butterscotch Pudding
And here’s what you need to make it. Very few ingredients!
Just a note on a few of the items:
DARK brown sugar – using dark rather than normal brown sugar intensifies the butterscotch flavour of the pudding and the sauce. So use it if you can – but it’s still well worth making even if you only have normal brown sugar!
Golden syrup – an Aussie/UK syrup used in baking, such as Anzac Biscuits. It has a caramel type flavour which makes it ideal to use in the pudding to give it a butterscotch flavour without making a caramel the traditional way with butter and sugar. It’s not widely available outside of Australia/NZ/UK though here it is on Amazon.com ($3.63 for a can).
Best substitute golden syrup
Dark corn syrup (this is ideal), honey or maple syrup. Any of these will be fine because most of the butterscotch flavour in this overall dish comes from the sauce!
PLENTY of Butterscotch Sauce!
This recipe makes a generous amount of Butterscotch Sauce because I can’t imagine anything more disappointing than cutting through hot pudding only to find little or no sauce underneath. 😩
So this recipe makes almost 50% more sauce than usual Butterscotch Pudding recipes which provides some margin for error, and differences in oven temperature, depth of baking dishes…. and all the other little things that can affect the outcome of a recipe.
The other nice thing about this pudding is that it’s not too sweet. Butterscotch sauce is typically made with just butter and sugar (like this caramel sauce) but in this Pudding, the sauce is also thickened with cornflour/cornstarch which means less sugar is needed to achieve the syrupy consistency.
Which means you can totally justify topping with ICE CREAM!!! In fact, scratch that. Ice cream is mandatory!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More warm, cosy desserts
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Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding
Ingredients
Butterscotch Pudding:
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar , packed (Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder , NOT baking soda (bi-carbonate)
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 1 large egg (~50-55g/2 oz in shell)
- 1/2 cup milk (full or low fat)
- 4 tbsp (90 g) golden syrup (Note 2)
Butterscotch Sauce:
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar , packed (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp cornflour / corn starch (I use 15 ml tbsp, if yours is 20 ml, use 6 tsp instead) (Note 3)
- 2 cups boiling water
Serving
- Vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan).
- Grease a 6 cup baking dish (1.6L/1.6Q) with butter.
- Butterscotch Sauce: Whisk sugar and cornflour in bowl. Set aside.
- Pudding batter: Place sugar, flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add butter, egg, milk and golden syrup. Whisk until mostly lump free.
- Scrape into baking dish and smooth surface.
- Sprinkle Butterscotch Sauce sugar mixture all over surface.
- Pour boiling water over the surface over the back of a dessert spoon held as close to the batter as you can (to soften the pour so it doesn’t break the surface of the batter).
- Transfer to oven, bake 40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the cake part comes out clean.
- Cut through pudding to reveal butterscotch sauce underneath.
- To serve, scoop pudding into a bowl then douse with butterscotch sauce. Top with ice cream!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Just had breakfast.
Now it’s snooze time.
We all want #LifeofDozer!!
I often don’t have insalted butter, would using normal butter make much of a difference please.
Everyone enjoyed this tonight. So easy and delicious. Will definitely make this again, thanks Nagi.
Made this last night and it was delicious! I’m not a baker but I found this easy enough to make. I added molasses to my light brown sugar without reading any of the comments, but only a drizzle.
I will definitely make this again
If you don’t have dark brown sugar, just add 1T molasses to 1C regular brown sugar. If you only have white sugar, add 2T molasses to white sugar.
Hi Nagi
Thanks for the recipe. Turned out great even with light brown sugar and exploding butter in the microwave like Linz. 🙂 Will definitely make it again.
My mom used to make this all the time for Sunday dinners. She added raisins. It was my favorite, and I have been looking for this recipe for so long!
Hot butterscotch cake feom Dinner – Help please!! Nagi any tips for making ahead??
Super easy, quick to put together and turned out perfectly, yum! Similar to the old British treacle pudding, but more saucey. I’m guessing treacle would work in place of golden syrup and still be delicious. For those whose puds didnt turn out, make sure you follow the instructions friends!
Not sure what went wrong with the other commenters but have made this recipe three times now and it’s a huge favourite in my family. Dark brown sugar is an absolute must. When it works, it’s a wonderful dessert: despite the sugar and sauce, not too sweet at all, especially with the ice cream. Just perfect!
Second attempt, still not a fan of this one. I really want to like it!
I have to say, I cannot fathom the unfavourable comments.
I, as a normally competent cook and frequent user of Nagi’s recipes (in fact, we had her cashew nut chicken tonight – highly recommended, btw!), managed to do absolutely everything in my power to sabotage* this pudding and it still got rave reviews from my family.
*I started with a smidge (just under 10%) too much butter to save putting a tiny bit back in the fridge, which very quickly became a lot too little after exploding all over the microwave. And by the time I had tidied up and mixed the dry ingredients, the butter had resolidified into unappetizing lumps in the milk. The golden syrup was a bit of a short measure, and had partially crystalised. I also used a slightly too small dish so the sauce ended up bubbling over the tray and then, to top the whole sorry episode off, I didn’t hear the oven timer and it was in for slightly longer than it should have been. And it was flipping delicious – reminiscent of an old-style suet pudding.
Quite literally fool proof.
Mine turned out runny & the base was flour. Had to throw it out. I did think when putting in 2 cups of boiling water it looked too much but I went ahead & did it anyway. I even cooked it an extra 10 min. I have made lots of your recipes before & enjoyed them all. This is the 1st one I had to throw out. Sorry.
didn’t work for me, water just made it not bake properly…
My family and I just loved this dish. So easy to make. Thank you Nagi!!
How much do you wanna bet that the people who are coming on here saying this is bland, used LIGHT brown sugar? That’s what I’m thinking.
(Every time I see light brown sugar at the store I think, “Why would I ever…?” And then I turn my nose up and quickly grab the dark and run away hugging my extra large bag of brown sugar. LOL. So I don’t run the risk of mine being bland.)
Coming from someone (me) who has made this recipe way more times than any reasonable person would, it’s worth it to ensure you are using DARK brown sugar.
Quite I few times I cried, thinking what did I do wrong, when my sauce came out too light colored and/or less liquidy than I prefer… that was because I did not add molasses (just a dab, about a tablespoon) to my maple syrup (which I use instead of golden syrup- because idk what that is).
I think my favorite way to make this, is to use a mix of maple syrup & brown sugar simple syrup, and a dab of molasses (for the sauce obviously). I’m not sure if I’ve ever used ‘only’ brown sugar simple syrup in place of the golden syrup though.
I’ve already mentioned this elsewhere on here, but I keep brown sugar simple syrup in my fridge at all times. So if you’re someone who likes the flavor of brown sugar, and also uses sugar in their drinks but hates all the stirring required to dissolve the sugar… make it. Obviously it can be made with white sugar, and probably most people would prefer that. Either way, you don’t know what you’re missing if you like sweetness in your drinks but dread the stirring.
I make mine at a 1:1.5 ratio, or sometimes 1:2 ratio (water to sugar) which ensures it’s really thick. There’s nothing more satisfying than reaching in and grabbing my bottle and adding a little drizzle to my lemon water bottle…. Mmm.
Btw, fun fact: did you know that molasses is so good for us? The mineral content is nice, and absorbs better than popping a pill.. look into it. The best part? It gets rid of premature greys in the hair. Holler!
❤️❤️❤️😊
Who are you?? I have the most amazing visual of you running out of a supermarket hugging a huge bag of dark brown sugar like its a bag of diamonds and I am all for it!
Really disappointed. Huge fan of Nagi’s recipes but I found this one just did not hit the mark. The sauce was very bland and watery, and overall the whole recipe was quite tasteless. One for the bin!
Hi Nagi, made this instead of golden syrup dumplings. Family thought it was delicious and commented that it was better than the dumplings.
Easy to make when you’re looking for something quick and easy to whip up for dessert.
Thank you – will make again
Delicious! We make this one weekly. And cook it in the microwave! 9mins on high, rest for 9 mins, perfection.
This is delicious. Is there any chance that you could make a 1 serve microwave pudding with the same recipe?, as I always crave this but it takes a long time to make a full recipe
Hi Nagi – I am celiac and unable to use plain flour. What would your recommended substitute be? Thank you!