Butterscotch Chips

Photo: flickr user emseearr

About

Butterscotch chips are a type of candy chip, like chocolate chips, that are used as ingredients in baking cookies and brownies.

Information

Translations: Butterscotch Μάρκες, Butterscotch žetonai, رقائق الحلوى, Karamelový Chips, Буттерсцотцх Помфрит, バターチップ, 버터 스카치 칩, Karamelový Chips, Toffi Chips, Butterscotch фишки, Chips Butterscotch, Butterscotch चिप्स, חמאה צ 'יפס, Butterscotch фішки, 巴特斯科奇芯片, Flødekaramel Chips, Kinuski Chips, Butterscotch Xips, Карамел чипове

Physical Description

Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter. Other ingredients such as corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt are typically part of the recipe also. The ingredients for butterscotch are similar to toffee; the major difference is that the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage for butterscotch and the hard crack stage for toffee. Butterscotch sauce is often made into a syrup, which is used as a topping for ice cream (particularly sundaes).

The term butterscotch is also often used, such as in the names of recipes, for the flavours brown sugar and butter together where the actual confection butterscotch is not involved, e.g. butterscotch pudding.

Colors: light brown

Tasting Notes

Flavors: salty

Mouthfeel: Crunchy

Food complements: Shortbread, Crisped rice, Peanut butter

Beverage complements: Milk

Substitutes: Peanut butter chips

Selecting and Buying

Seasonality: january, february, march, april, may, june, july, august, september, opctober, november, december

Choosing: #
Make sure the unsweetened chocolate is completely blended with the butterscotch sauce so that the butterscotch flavor comes through.
#
Use unsweetened white chocolate only or you might alter the butterscotch flavor and the chips will not have the authentic butterscotch taste.
#
Do not over cook sauce or burn the bottom of the pan.

Buying: Available in the baking section of most grocery stores.

Preparation and Use

Prepare all of the ingredients and let sit to room temperature.
Melt the unsalted butter over low heat in a sauce pan and then stir in the dark brown sugar .
Stir until the mixture is creamy then add vanilla extract and kosher salt.
Slowly add heavy whipping cream while continuing to mix the other ingredients.
Pour butterscotch sauce over tempered unsweetened white chocolate and heat until they are blended and melted completely.
Drop the warm butterscotch/white chocolate mixture onto wax paper is small droplets to make the chips.
Chill the butterscotch chips and store them in an air tight container.
Add the homemade butterscotch chips to cookies, drop them into cake batter or use them as a topping on an icecream sundae.

Conserving and Storing

It is often used as a flavour for items such as dessert sauce, pudding, and biscuits. To that end, it can be bought in "butterscotch chips", made with hydrogenated (solid) fats so as to be similar for baking use to chocolate chips. There are also individually wrapped, translucent sometimes yellow colored hard candies with an artificial butterscotch flavour, which is dissimilar to actual butterscotch.

Social/Political

Butterscotch is an example of a genericized trademark, originally a trademark of Parkinson's

History: Food historians have several theories regarding the name and origin of this confectionery, but none are conclusive. One explanation is the meaning "to cut or score" for the word "scotch", as the confection must be cut into pieces, or "scotched", before hardening.[1][2] It is also possible that the "scotch" part of its name was derived from the word "scorch".

However, the word was first recorded in Doncaster, in England, where Samuel Parkinson began making the confectionery in 1817. Parkinson's Butterscotch had royal approval and was one of Doncaster's attractions until it ceased production in 1977. The recipe was revived in 2003 when a Doncaster businessman and his wife rediscovered the recipe on an old folded piece of paper inside one of the famous St Leger tins in their cellar.