Butterscotch Budino with Salted Caramel is a layered dessert with a rich creamy custard and a handcrafted salted caramel sauce.
A few years ago, I attended a women's conference where they were serving a beautifully layered butterscotch budino custard dessert topped with a handcrafted salted caramel.
I was on a diet.
I was very sad to be on a diet.
I watched everyone eat it with a huge smile on their face, describing in great detail about how amazing it was. Ever since then, I wanted to eat that exact dessert.
Fast forward two years later. I recently attended a calligraphy workshop put on by Jill McKee of Modern March. She's ultra-talented at everything she does and she brought out a decadent butterscotch budino with salted caramel. All my dreams were coming true because I was NOT on a diet this time. Hallelujah!
I literally savored every single bite of the creamy custard and decadent homemade caramel. I literally went to the grocery store on the way home to try to replicate it at home. I couldn't wait to share it with my family and my Modern Honey readers.
I played around with the custard until it was perfection. This may be one of my favorite desserts of all time. It is such a comforting dish and I want to eat an entire bowl of it.
So what is a budino? So glad you asked. Budino is a sweet Italian dish, usually rich and creamy like a custard or pudding. This is a handcrafted butterscotch pudding made with butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, egg yolks, and vanilla....basically the GOOD stuff. It is topped with a slow-cooked homemade salted caramel, which completely melts in your mouth.
This dessert is so beautiful to serve in small jars, parfait glasses, or glass dessert bowls and is perfect to serve at parties, weddings, showers, or when you just want to impress some people. Butterscotch Budino with Salted Caramel is one impressive dessert!
So how do you make a perfect butterscotch budino? It all starts with making a creamy custard. To change up a classic vanilla custard, we are using brown sugar and butter to give it the rich butterscotch flavor. A mix of whole milk and heavy cream gives it a creamy texture. The egg yolks add richness to the custard.
Homemade salted caramel is made with butter, sugar, heavy cream, and sea salt. It tops the decadent butterscotch budino and is the perfect accompaniment to the creamy custard. The key to making homemade caramel is to watch it like a hawk. Homemade caramel can go from perfect to burned within seconds. This is such a simple recipe using only four ingredients.
Butterscotch Budino with Salted Caramel
Ingredients
Butterscotch Budino Custard:
- 3 Tablespoons Salted Butter
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup Cornstarch
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 2 cups Whole Milk
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla or 1 Vanilla Bean
Homemade Salted Caramel:
- 1 cup Sugar
- ½ cup Butter
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- ¼ teaspoons Sea Salt (plus more for the top of caramel)
Instructions
To make Butterscotch Budino Custard:
- In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar and keep stirring until the brown sugar and butter are completely melted.
- Stir in cornstarch. Add heavy cream and whole milk.
- Bring to a slow rolling boil and let thicken. Continue to cook and stir until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
- While the milk mixture is cooking, place egg yolks in small bowl. Temper egg yolks by spooning a small amount of hot milk into the bowl. Use a whisk and keep stirring. Pour the mixture back into the pot.
- Bring it back to a boil for 1 minute.
- Add vanilla extract or vanilla bean.
- Let chill in refrigerator and cool completely. If you want to expedite the cooling process, put in an ice bath.
How to make salted caramel:
- Two Methods:
- In a medium saucepan, heat sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- The sugar will begin to form clumps and will turn into an amber color. Keep stirring. Watch carefully as the sugar can easily burn.
- Once sugar is completely melted, add the butter. The butter will bubble so be careful.
- Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted. Use a whisk to stir the sugar and butter.
- Drizzle the heavy cream into mixture and stir.
- Let it boil for 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in sea salt. Let set up.
- EASIER METHOD:
- Melt butter and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Let melt and stir with wooden spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Keep stirring and cooking until it turns an amber color. Watch it carefully. Stir in heavy cream and sea salt. Boil for 1 minute and let set up.
- To make layered dessert:
- Layer butterscotch custard and top with salted caramel.
I can't wait to hear what you think of this decadent dessert. It is downright heavenly! Come find me on instagram at @modern_honey. Happy Baking!
Sophie
Love this pudding. It’s relatively simple but make sure you have things measured out ahead of time so you’re not trying to frantically measure while your mixture bubbles on the stove. Also might be obvious but make sure you REALLY temper the eggs so they’re basically almost hot instead of just warm. I added mine too quickly I think and my budino had some tiny lumps in it. Still delicious but not as smooth. I also found it was really tasty when it was still warm! I recommend putting it in the jars to set, if you leave it in the pot it’ll from a film on top. And lastly, if you’re like me and worried about the caramel, I just used Ghirardelli caramel sauce and it paired perfectly!
Lisa
Hi, Canada doesn’t sell whole milk, what can substitute it for?
Stephen
I believe it’s Homogonized Milk (homo milk) in Canada. Check the label, but it should say the fat content - 3.25-3.5%
Angie
Can this be made ahead of time if I need it for a party the next night ?
Ruthie
Absolutely!
Marissa
How many ounces are the glass jars?
Nat
The pudding part was fantastic and so easy, but the caramel topping was stiff and hard, not a “sauce” at all —- what did I do wrong?
Ruthie
HI Nat, either you cooked the sugar too long, or -- more likely just didn't add anough cream. I don't use the final step of this recipe, of boiling an additional minute or two after stirring in the cream. You can test how thick the caramel is by dropping a few drops into a glass of cold water. Add more cream to make it thinner, cook it longer to make it thicker.
Megan Lawrence
Made this last weekend - to great accolades. It's very rich and sweet, so better suited to more smaller servings.
Megan
Now this sounds like my kind of dessert. I've just printed it out - next time I make pavlova or meringues, this is what I'm making with the leftover egg yolks.
Hannah
Easy to make and SO delicious! Everything turned out perfect and I can't wait to host dinner parties with this as the dessert!
Donna A Pollock
Oh My Melissa, This looks so delicious. I can't wait to make this one. I love it just as it is on your Photo. How do you stay so thin making all these delicious desserts? I will let you know where to send the Fire Dept. to come and cut me out of my house after eating all of these. LOL
Chris
I’ve made the custard but mines brown like butterscotch color. Why doesn’t it look like the one in the picture. Is that a different type of custard? What do I change to get it to look like your picture?
Sandy
Very tasty but sweet. My custard is brown not white, any one have any ideas?
Em
I think the difference in color is dark brown sugar vs light brown sugar.
Kate Zappa
We love this recipe but don't do method 2 for the caramel! It hardened beyond to the consistency of Now and Laters making it very difficult to eat. Use method one and you'll be much happier with the results
Grace
Good day. Please, for the salted caramel, do I use Brown sugar or white sugar please? It was not specify into the instruction, it just said, sugar so I would like to make sure as to what type of sugar please and thank you so much
Wendy
I made this yesterday and it was delicious! Just wanted to mention that when I was making the custard, the hot melted butter/brown sugar/corn starch mixture seized up and got hard when I added the cold heavy cream and milk. Eventually, it melted, but it definitely worried me for a while. Just in case others have the same experience, know that all is not lost! Just keep stirring!
Courtney
Thanks!!! This happened to me too! I thought it ruined it
Dorothy
Hi! This looks delicious! Does 6 servings mean like 6 7oz Weck jars? Thanks!
Amy
I was trying to recreate the butterscotch pudding from the Spike Africa’s now closed restaurant in San Diego. This recipe nailed it! The pudding was amazing! I think the caramel was a tad buttery for my taste, might try cutting back the butter a tad next time I make it and adding some bourbon in. I’d recommend first lightly coating the pudding with the butterscotch and adding more later if needed, it is super rich. This made double the caramel needed for the pudding....so next time I’ll just double the amount of pudding I make 🙂 Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
Stine Mari
My mouth literally watered when I saw this recipe, YUM.
Karly
I am a TOTAL sucker for anything butterscotch- these look amazing! NEEEED to try soon!
Hillary
Yes!! You recreated it! Can't wait to try!!
Modern Honey
Hi Hillary! I hope you LOVE it. We are obsessed over here with it! 🙂
Diane
It was amazing. Loved this desert. Juts wondering where I could buy the same little glasses that you see. Liked on Amazon and can’t find them or anywhere else. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Nancy Blue
All I can say is yum! I can't wait to try this. Thanks 🙂
Modern Honey
Hi Nancy! It's a GOOD one! We love this dessert in our house. I hope you love it too.
Sarah
Do you let the custard set first before topping with the caramel?