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:
Life of Dozer
Just had breakfast.
Now it’s snooze time.
We all want #LifeofDozer!!
Made 2 of these…..
1. Dairy free
2. You’re recipe
Both AMAZING 😍
Woah that’s great Caroline!!
Hi Nagi. Can I substitute corn starch with plain flour? Don’t have any corn starch at home!
Your*
Hi Nagi ☺️
Is there anyway to use salted butter instead of unsalted?
Sure thing Jasmine! Go ahead – baked things always benefit from a pinch of salt anyway 🙂 N xx
Hi Nagi – I want to try this recipe for a dinner party and I got tagged for dessert. I saw your suggestions to separate the cake from the sauce for leftovers, but any advice to make it in advance (morning of dinner party)? Thanks for your lovely, lovely blog. And of course for Dozer. He is a lucky boy.
Hi Sue, I find this one is better made fresh as the cake absorbs the sauce and just isn’t the same reheated!
As I currently do not have a working oven, could this be adapted to the microwave?
Yes, i have made puddings in microwaves before and it works!
Hi Debbie, I haven’t tried to be honest!
Great lookiing recipie but why all the full page stuff. I think the recipie and a picture is all you need.
Because it’s MY blog – if you don’t like it you can click the “recipe” button at the top of the page and you’ll go straight to the recipe – Nagi
Just saw this recipe – will be making ASAP. Wanted to say I LOVE your blog – it is the only one I consistently read. Delicious recipes, great stories, and of course DOZER!
I love your full page blog, and all your recipes. You are amazing. Oh, and I also love Dozer. Thank you for your simplistic but delicious recipes.
Amazing! Big hit and will make again.
I’m so glad you loved it Monica!
Delicious! I have made lots of recipes off this blog and they are all amazing. I did make a change – I didn’t use potatoes, but while the chicken rested I cooked 2 cups jasmine rice in the (4 cups of) broth. Big hit, will make again.
I hope you didn’t use potatoes in this one Monica 😂
Yet another successful recipe. Similar to poverty pudding that my mom made when I was a kid (I’m 60). You’ve turned me into a rock star in the kitchen – my boys are in heaven. Josh asks if I can add chopped apple to this recipe. Any suggestions? Thank you, Nagi! Michelle
Hi Michelle, I’m so glad you loved it! I haven’t tried with apple, I’m not sure how it would affect the batter, would love to know if it works though! N x
What can I say? So delicious and lots of sauce as promised. Thank you Nagi.
You’re so welcome Michelle!
Hi Nagi.
I made this recipe but didn’t get any sauce as it all soaked up into the pudding, followed recipe exactly but am thinking that my oven needs to be much lower than recommended temp, would you think that could be the cause? Flavour was nice.
Hi Jennifer, sorry you had issues here!! Sounds like it’s overcooked – you may need to check the thermostat on your oven to ensure it’s at the right temperature – N x
Absolutely delicious. My husband ate this 3 nights in a row and wondered why I hadn’t made it previously. It will be my go to winter pudding. Thanks Nagi!
He’s a lucky man Kate!!
Absolutely awesome. So easy to make.
I’m so glad you loved it Diane!!
Ohh this sounds wonderful. Can you cook it in a microwave?
Hi Teresa, sorry I haven’t tried!
Oh my gosh! I can’t wait to try this. I make a chocolate brownie pudding that I love , love , love that is very similar to make as this but my husband can’t stand chocolate. I know, how can I be married to a chocolate hater? I’m ordering your golden syrup and as soon as I get it this will be in the oven. I’ll let you know how the picky one likes it! 🙂
OMG I didn’t know such people exist Kelly!! Love to know what he thinks – keep me posted!
Just made this tonight it was an absolute winner. Love how much sauce there was. Thanks for another great recipe Nagi.
YESSS!! My mission was to create one with stacks of sauce!!
This was delicious!
Wahoo, thanks so much Bec!
This looks delicious!!! If I bake this in a slightly bigger dish like 2L does the baking time change?
Hi Jacqueline, yes just reduce the cooking time sightly as the pudding will be thinner and cook quicker 🙂
Yummmm I would love to bring this over to a friends house. Can I make it ahead or if I make part of it & do the other part (baking) & bake it at my friends house which part do I do it? Is that doable?
Hi Ennn, this one isn’t really suitable to make ahead unfortunately. The longer it sits after baking, the more the pudding soaks up the sauce.
Can you make this and freeze it? If so how would you do it??
HI Elizabeth! Unfortunately no – as this sits around, the sauce gets absorbed by the sponge and this would be exacerbated by freezing 🙂 N x
Awesome, even though I lost track of time, overcooked it and lost a lot of the sauce!! Will be much more careful next time (I blame the wine, lol)
Ha ha – we’ve all done it! 🙂 N x