thebigfatnoodle

Fresh fruit doesn’t have to be boring #5: apple dunkers with salted butterscotch

Standard · Posted by thebigfatnoodle on October 12, 2011 · 8 Comments 

Party favourite

Be careful and don't burn your mouth on the hot sauce!

As much as I’d love to live in denial, the onset of winter is creeping closer and closer every day. I don’t know about you but why does it always feel like it takes forever for the weather to turn hot in spring and summer, and yet the teeth-chattering chill of winter seems to arrive seemingly within a matter of days!?!!

It’s not even the middle of October yet and we’re already considering whether we should light a fire. As much as I love sitting by our open fire of an evening, I’m holding out mentally – ie deluding myself – into thinking that we might have just a few more days of warming sunny weather still to come… meantime, the only way I know to ease my mindset into winter is to obsess about all the sweeter flavours I like to associate with this time, like maple syrup, hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows and… butterscotch!

This salted butterscotch sauce is just so easy to make and is such an easy crowd pleaser. It only takes 5 minutes to whip up and is perfect for when friends drop in unexpectedly and you still want to be able to serve a dessert that has that certain ‘wow’ factor. I love nothing more than making food that’s served from a central plate that everyone has to share and get involved with.

Great as a dessert for sharing with kids and adults alike

We love making this sauce to dunk apple slices into but it works just as well with other fruit like bananas, pears and strawberries. And you never have to stress out even if you have extra mouths to feed, as long as you have fruit around 🙂

Needless to say, the butterscotch sauce is also a match made in heaven drizzled over plain vanilla ice cream. And if you don’t want a salted butterscotch sauce, just leave the salt out… enjoy!

Dunk me 🙂

Salted butterscotch sauce

50 grams butter

50 grams of soft brown sugar (we use vanilla sugar)

50 grams golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Tiny squeeze of lemon juice

75 ml of double cream

Bung all the ingredients (except the cream) into a saucepan and heat until the sugar has melted and all the ingredients have blended together. Allow the sauce to cook (stirring constantly) for about 5 minutes to thicken and darken. Turn off the heat and stir the double cream in until it’s mixed thoroughly and the sauce is thick, gooey and glossy. A word of warning – be careful cooking with sugar as it’s really, really hot!

Serve the sauce with your favourite fresh fruit. I normally prepare all my fruit before I make the sauce and to stop my apple slices from going brown, I steep them in ice cold water that’s had the juice of half a lemon squeezed into the water.

Fruit dunkers with salted butterscotch sauce - great with any fruit