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!!
Not a winner. Was just a glue ball – sauce didnt work and just tasted of sugar.
PLease, what size tablespoon. AU 20ml or US 15ml. Is this why some people end up with a too thick sauce?
Hi! In Quebec, this is called a pouding chomeur. Very old traditional French Canadian recipe. We sometimes make it with maple syrup. Been a fan of yours for a long time. Hug Dozes for me.
I made this with gluten free flour as I am coeliac. The butterscotch sauce came out gluggy. Should I omit the cornflour next time. The cake is light but needs more flavour perhaps I should add some spices next time?
I think cornflour is not a consistent thickening result – I used the amount and it was thick and lumpy – and was looking here to see if others had not so great result – my first Nagi not perfect result – I hope you don’t mind me responding x
A big hit with everyone! I made it exactly to the recipe, using soft dark brown sugar and Lyles golden syrup – from a tin, not a squeezy bottle. The pudding was light and not too sweet, with plenty of sauce. We found that the sweetness could be adjusted by adding more or less sauce. Delicious butterscotch flavour.
Made this as a test run for Christmas. I don’t eat sticky date or fruit pudding and this is a great alternative. It’s not as nice as the self saucing chocolate pudding but still very tasty, especially with vanilla ice cream. Still tasty the next day once reheated. There is still a bit of sauce there but it’s not as gooey.
This was possibly the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. It was like receiving a punch to the face by Willy Wonka. If you like eating sugar by the tablespoon, you’ve arrived at the gates of Heaven. I feel like o need to inject myself with 20 units of novorapid. Zero stars.
Extremely recommend, so yummy! Would be good for a desert in winter!
Made this last night and it was good but the sauce didn’t turn out liquidy. What do you think I did wrong?
Thank you Nagi!!! This was SO good. Served with chai poached pears – to die for 🙂
I’ve made this Butterscotch Pudding (why it’s called pudding is weird to me, but that doesn’t make it even the tiniest bit less delicious!), so many times. Probably 20, and that’s all me eating it lol.
The most recent time i made the recipe, i sadly realized we were out of cornstarch. I was so annoyed, but after looking up decent alter/substitutes for cornstarch, i decide to grab the bag of Birchbenders pancake mix sitting on the shelf and substitute with that. It was totally fine. Perfect. And this recipe is so easy btw.
I always add vanilla, and that’s only because it’s a compulsion i think. I also always add molasses into the top mixture. No reason why, i guess another compulsion 🤷🏻♀️ Who knows and who cares.
My final note is that I always leave it on the counter and call it a coffee cake. That is just so that i can have it with my coffee first thing and no one will judge me. 😁
Definitely needed salted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and maybe a hint of coffee to offset all the sweetness.
This self saucing butterscotch pudding was sickening sweet & bland. Will not make again 👎👎
I think the word you’re looking for is ‘sickeningly’.
Also, something can’t be both ‘bland’ and ‘sickeningly sweet’. Bland means devoid of flavour or taste, but sweetness is universally recognised as one of the five basic tastes or flavours.. So, which is it? Too sweet or no flavour? By definition, it can’t be both. #learningisfun
Can I prepare bater and topping in advance and cook at last minute ? Thanks
I often prepare the batter – topping early. Then cook at last minute
This was possibly the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. It was like receiving a punch to the face from Willy Wonka. If you like to eat pure sugar by the tablespoon, you’ve arrived at the gates of Heaven. I feel like I need to inject 20 units of novorapid. ZERO STARS.
Nagy does not deserve to be spoken to disrespectfully. You are entitled to a negative opinion, but do so without being hurtful.
OMGOSH 😋💜😋 best saucing pudding ever I’ve lost count how many times I’ve made this one and I’m generally not a pudding person …hehehe
The mr Dozer’s photo above is really peaceful and so Beautiful …💜✨️💜
What would you recommend in America to substitute golden syrup?
Wonderful pudding and sauce
Made this with cupboard ingredients only thing that was missing was the ice cream
It’s on the shopping list but tasted good without
How much in your tablespoon
I was so looking forward to this, but I was sadly disappointed. The cakey part was ok, but the sauce was just a thickened sugary syrup. After tasting it I went back and checked the recipe in case I missed something, but nope…that was it. No real butterscotch flavour, just sweetness.