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 (50g) dark brown sugar , packed (Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cup (185g) plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 2.5 tsp baking powder
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup (125ml) milk (full or low fat)
- 4 tbsp golden syrup (Note 2)
Butterscotch Sauce:
- 3/4 cup (150g) dark brown sugar , packed (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp cornflour / corn starch
- 2 cups (500ml) 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:
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Hi Nagi. Happy New Year. Do you think this recipe would work with added pecans in the batter? Thank you for any information. 🙂
I haven’t tried that Mary – let me know if it works or if they sink to the bottom! N x
Very clever recipe and fun to do with kids
Has anyone tried this with coconut sugar?
This recipe is so easy and it was a favourite at Christmas this year. Thank you so much for your amazing recipes – several featured on Christmas day at our house and all winners!
Canada has golden syrup too! We are here!
This has become another five star regular from Nagi. I don’t bother with google anymore, I just go straight to Recipe Tin Eats! Never fail, tasty food with great instructions. Thank you Nagi and Dozer
Really easy and GOOD!!! Made for Thanksgiving a dairy-free version. Yummm!
Hi Nagi. Can I make this with almond milk?
For the life of me, I can never get the scale button to work. Whether I tap or hover, it just opens another page of the same recipe. Help! I need to scale this down for 4.
Hi Brooke – try clicking on the scale and dragging the mouse along the bar to the quantity you want. N x
I have a butterscotch pudding recipe that I have used for years, but this one is sooo much better. The pudding is so spongey. I did a straight swap for GF flour and used dark muscovado sugar so the sauce looks much darker than yours and was very thick, certainly couldn’t spoon it over the pudding, but we had a big dollop of whipped cream and it was absolutely delicious!! Thank you!!
I always like it when I beat out an existing fave recipe (not competitive AT ALL, am I?!! 😂) N x
We loved it!! I veganised it by making a flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 Tbsp water), used Nuttlex instead of butter and soy milk. I used SR flour and it worked out perfectly. I didn’t have dark brown sugar (didn’t even know it existed 😆), but it was still amazing! My kids first time trying Butterscotch Self Sauce Pudding and I’m sure they will be asking for it again.
I’ve made a few of your recipes and veganised them and they have all been delicious!! Thank you for amazing recipes 🙏🏼💕
Thank you so much! I can’t eat dairy so I was nervous about how it would turn out but I’m glad it worked using nuttelex and I’m going to try it with almond milk! Thank you!
Hi Nagi,
Thanks for the recipe. Would it work if I prepped the dish (up to step 7) and just left it on the bench for a few hours before baking and serving?
Hi Zara, no it won’t sorry – once you’ve activated the raising agent it needs to be cooked. N x
I made this today it was DELICIOUS!!! A huge hit at dinner – everyone loved it. A perfect winter dessert!
I doubled the recipe and did end up leaving it on the counter for about two and a half hours as I wanted it to be fresh out of the oven for dessert. It turned out perfect 😄
Hands down the bestest pudding I’ve ever made!!!!
This is delicious! All the textures and flavors turned out exactly as they should. It was a quick and easy treat using staples in my pantry. Thanks!
Perfect, I’m so glad you enjoyed it Pam! N x
Quick and easy recipe that was delicious! I divided it up into 6 ramekin dishes and baked for 30 minutes. Perfect! Thank you again Nagi and Dozer x
Hi Nagi, thanks. I would like to use two eggs, as sweets are the only way to get eggs into my fussy son. Do you think it will still work?😊
Hi Kate, adding more egg will dry out the mixture unfortunately! N x
Made this tonight with Gluten free self-raising flour and it was amazing! Thank you.
Pleased to read your comment as wondered if g/f flour as substitute would cook as well. On tonight’s pudding menu😀
Fab recipe Nagi. Only had regular Brown sugar and the flavour was great, keen to try it next time with dark.
Separated the cake from sauce (so much sauce!!) to have it again tonight.
So easy to make, apart from making sure you have cream or ice cream – you probably have all the ingredients in the back of the pantry. Family pleaser.