Scotch Butterscotch Sauce

Any of you who come here with any regularity know that there are plenty of reasons to pity my husband. Plenty.

But the reason I'm talking about today involves sweets. The lack of sweets. Specifically, the lack of any sweets in my house geared towards anyone over the age of 8.

We have *kiddie* sweets--fruit snacks, chocolate-chip granola bars, dum-dum pops. But dark chocolate? Haagen-Dazs ice cream? Any cookie besides a teddy graham? Nope.

It's not that hubs is fat; he most certainly is not. And it's not that I don't love him; of course I do. It's just that I don't crave sweets. I really don't. And so, when I'm at the grocery store, I forget about them. I remember the sweets for the girls--I'm not that stupid--but then I just sort of drop the ball. I ignore the candy/cookie aisle and traipse straight to the chip/nut aisle, which is more my speed.

My poor hubs does crave sweets. And if he's in the throes of a bad sweet jones, he's sorta screwed. I'll hear him pawing desperately through the pantry, sniffing out the smallest bit of chocolate, and I'll feel a pang of guilt. I forgot him. Again.

I also don't bake, so we have zippo baked goods on hand. Except at Christmas, when he dreamily ate his way through Cookie-of-the-Week-Month.

This results in some good-natured grumbling on his part. "Christ, do we have one item in this pantry that doesn't contain salt?" he says, riffling through the shelves. He has been known, on occasion, to get so desperate that he actually enters a grocery store. And then he'll come home, hide his stash, plow through it, and forget the cupboard is bare. Repeat.

This Valentine's Day, I decided to make hubs a delicious, sweet, adult treat. Because he's an excellent husband and dad, and he weathers sugar deprivation so valiantly the rest of the year.

I whipped up this sundae sauce for my sweetie. It's wicked simple and butterscotch-y good. I bought some artisanal coconut gelato, toasted up some almonds, and we were in business.

Except. The day got away from me and I forgot about dessert! I suck! Even when I make dessert, I forget about it!

I even forgot about it until Monday afternoon, when I opened the refrigerator and saw the jar of sauce on the shelf.

Sorry, honey. You are stuck with a Lame Wife. But cheer up, sweetie. This is waiting for you when you get home.






Scotch Butterscotch Sauce
makes about 1 cup
from Bon Appetit Magazine

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons scotch whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir sugar, cream, butter and syrup in a heavy large saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and simmer until sauce coats the back of a spoon, about 4 minutes.

Cool slightly. Stir in scotch and vanilla.