Butterscotch Pudding {gluten free}
I’ve made three batches of pudding this past week.
I churned out a vanilla bean pudding (I subbed an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for extract) a cheesecake pudding for lovely friends, and this butterscotch pudding.
Pudding is comforting, and it’s the sort of thing that we’ve needed lately. Mr. Dessert For Two left for Kansas bright and early yesterday morning. I’m staying behind in California until I get a job all lined up out there. Also, I’m staying behind because he’ll be living in a hotel room until we find a house, and I just couldn’t run this website from an extended-stay hotel room. It would be nothing but microwave mug cakes, no-bake delights, and other things that could be made in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp with minimal appliances. My devotion to desserts is far too strong to live like that for more than one week.
The good news is that we can delay our big move until we find a house. This means that I won’t be sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor of an empty house snuggling with my stand mixer instead of him.
I want to say THANK YOU for all the sweet words and kind messages y’all offered when I shared my news. I called the Mr to share my gratitude and he said “you sure do have some nice readers.” And I couldn’t agree more. I read each comment several times, and I even emailed a few of you who had connections in Kansas. You guys are the best, and I can’t thank you enough.
Let’s be honest: I made him snap this shot because I wanted to show off my hot pink nail polish.
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon scotch (or regular whiskey)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- extra cream for topping
- In a medium glass bowl, add the brown sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir lightly with a whisk to blend.
- Then, slowly pour in ¼ cup of the cream and whisk vigorously to dissolve the sugar and cornstarch. Add the last of the cream slowly, still whisking.
- Add the milk slowly and whisk very well to ensure all the dry ingredients are dissolved.
- Pour the milk and cream mixture into a saucepan and turn the stove onto medium. Bring the pudding to a simmer while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the saucepan during cooking.
- Once the pudding starts to gently simmer, turn the heat to low and cook another 1 minute. Turn off the heat, and then stir in the butter, vanilla, and scotch.
- Pour the mixture into 2 small cups, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. If you don’t like a pudding skin, press the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding before chilling.
This looks so rich and smooth and comforting – definitely what the situation calls for at the moment. I hope you manage to get house/job/everything sorted quickly and can start enjoying your new life!
Also love the hot pink.
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Definitely looks like I could just eat this all day. Looks amazing!
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What a delightful dessert! Yum!
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I feel like a horrible friend for missing the big announcement. We’ve had some crazy times at the beginning of 2012 too – I am also jobless. We can job hunt together
I totally agree that pudding has healing powers. Now, how about butterscotch AND rice pudding? Whoa.
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Oh love, this is my kind of pudding. I’m a fool for butterscotch! This is gorgeous!
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I’ve never made butterscotch pudding from scratch but have fond memories of the Jello stuff my mom and grandma used to make…I bet this is…amazing!
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Butterscotch pudding is what they feed you in Heaven on your birthday. I’m sure of it. This looks like the perfect portion for ME!!!!
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Giiiirl, I kind of feel like stickin’ my booty in that puddin’. STICK IT.
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This is so wrong. So wrong. Gimme.
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I love butterscotch pudding – so tasty! And homemade is worlds better than the boxed sort…so delicious!
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Looks amazing! Happy house hunting
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yummy dessert
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Nothing like comfort food (aka dessert) for when we are sad. Hoping you get a fabulous job soon and things go well from there!
Love the pink polish:-)
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This is my favorite pudding!! I may have just drooled on my keyboard. Whatevs
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Homemade pudding is the best! Sorry I missed your news the first time. Good luck in your new endeavors. You will enjoy your new life and I am sure you will find a great job.
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oh my this looks decadent. you come up with the best desserts!!!
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This looks amazing – I love pudding! I need to make it for my family very soon!
Thank you for the recipe!
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I love butterscotch in all its many forms. The highlight of my month was discovering that homemade butterscotch sauce can be turned into frosting by putting it in the kitchenaid with the whisk attachment. I’m sure this surprises exactly no one but me, but I was happy.
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Christina Reply:
March 20th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
Are you kidding, Deanna?! That surprises and delights me equally! Excuse me while I lug out my stand mixer… Thanks!
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Mug cakes and temporary kitchen facilities are tolerable… if need be. Hot pink nail polish is a sign of Spring! And your butterscotch pudding is killing me. (Dessert for One…?) Naw, I’d share.
Here’s hoping your move and everything involved goes well — best wishes, Christina!
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The hubby and I both looooooooove butterscotch! I can’t wait to make this for him!
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Butterscotch pudding is my all time favourite kind of pudding and if my boyfriend was in another city would be the first thing I’d turn to for comfort! Good luck with the big move and I hope you find work soon…if you don’t, would you like to be my personal pudding chef?!
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I think I might make some pudding today, it’s raining in Kansas. That’s a good thing, we want the fields soaking up all that rain before we plant corn in April. What part of Kansas will you and Mr be moving to? We are in north central Kansas, just west of Manhattan. How exciting about your move!!
I e-mailed you last summer when I was working on desserts for our “Plates on the Prairie” dinner, I don’t know if you remember our correspondence back and forth….
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I think this is pudding for one! I am not sharing:)
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butterscotch pudding is my all time favorite and i have never tried making it at home. now i will – this sounds incredible.
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Wow, you’ve just reminded me how much I used to LOVE butterscotch pudding. And how it’s been way too long since I had any! Beautiful photo too
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Love the pink polish. Love the tea kettle. Love that you won’t have to snuggle with your stand mixer instead of your honey (although I’m sure you have your days…)
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3 batches of pudding?! Wowser
Beautiful photos and I love butterscotch everything!
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Lately I have been drawn to butterscotch pudding everytime I see it on a menu! Haven’t really thought of making it myself, until I saw your post! It sounds delicious and like something I can handle
PS – hot pink nails look great!
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Lovely nail polish! It’s so bright and perfect for Spring
And I love pudding. Pudding is very comforting, and butterscotch makes everything better.
I’ve never had butterscotch pudding, though, so I’m excited to try this!
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We love butterscotch and pudding. Also, I love your nails!
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Homemade pudding is the best. I don’t know why I don’t make it more often. Still crossing my fingers that you find a job soon and are able to move out to Kansas with your hubby soon!
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congrats on your exciting move! pudding is the perfect comforting dessert for the occasion especially butterscotch my fave! and love the nails!
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I love pudding! It’s such a pick-me-up that’s perfect for any time during the day. And I’m such a sucker for butterscotch so I’m sure I will love this.
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This looks so decadent and delicious!
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I made this Sunday. It is so good! I plan on making it again tomorrow night. Thank you for a great easy recipe.
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This sounds good – and now I finally know what “butterscotch” is!
Being from Finland, I had a vague idea that it was sweet-caramell -y, but I would never have guessed that it was actually butter+scotch (+sweet/caramelle). Far too simple.
I must try this sometime – I usually never have unsalted butter, but since you have a bit of salt in the recipe, I guess that won’t matter too much. Figuring out your weird measurements (metric FTW, lol) is always a challenge, but I think I get the gist of this one:
A Maizena (corn starch) pudding (consistency of a thickish custard?) with a cream instead of milk for a little less than 1/3 of the liquid, flavoured with brown sugar, whisky, vanilla and butter.
I wonder how it would come out if you made the pudding thicker, to a consistency where you could put it in a mould?
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[...] recipe for butterscotch pudding came from Desserts for Two, one of my favourite blogs. Dad generously donated a teaspoon of his McClelland’s Scotch [...]