Butterscotch And Biscuits

As I said in a previous post, I have been craving butterscotch like crazy. What tipped me from "butterscotch sounds nice" to "MUST HAVE IT NOW" was buying the so-so Butterscotch Krimpets last year. This week I finally got to splurge on high quality ingredients to make three butterscotch recipes:

Butterbeer Ice Cream Sandwiches from Cherry Tea Cakes

Butterscotch Brownies with Brown Sugar Frosting and Pecans from Caramel Potatoes

Ruth's Diners Mile High Biscuits from Deals To Meals

A couple of tips before you start these recipes:

- The brownies, ice cream and frosting require making hot caramel. These desserts are best made when small children are not underfoot. You cannot walk away from the stove for just a minute.  Don't stand too close to the stove, because hot caramel splatters easily. You will need to have every ingredient pre-measured or the caramel will burn / or harden.
- It took me two tries to make the Brown Sugar Frosting. The first time, I followed the instructions to boil the caramel. The caramel became dark and chewy. It had to be thrown out. The second time, I took the pan off the stove as soon as a few bubbles appeared, instead of letting it boil further. Then I followed the rest of the steps to the letter. That batch of frosting turned out perfect. I don't know if it's my stove temperature or if I misunderstood the recipe. Either way, the frosting and the brownies are to die for!
- I don't have an ice cream maker yet. So the Butterbeer Ice Cream didn't come out completely smooth, even when I followed another website's instructions to stir the freezing ice cream every hour to break up the ice crystals. I had expected that to happen, with or without the stirring. But the flavor was on point. So I will reuse this recipe when I finally get my ice cream maker. The recurring comment in the AMW family was "It doesn't have enough butterscotch flavor. It's really good, though." Next time I'll double the amount of caramel in the recipe. It was also suggested that I add bananas and pecans, so I'll include those, too.
- I didn't bake the shortbread cookies from the Butterbeer Ice Cream recipe, since I was already making brownies.
- Let me tell you how good the Butterscotch Brownies are. On their own, it's like having shirtless Jeff Goldblum show up at your door. With the Brown Sugar Frosting, it's like shirtless Jeff Goldblum came to your house and said "I hope you don't mind, I brought my friend Craig Ferguson along."'
- I bought a bag of Hershey's butterscotch chips for the ice cream. The chips tasted too much like Brach's Maple Nut Goodies. I left those out of the ice cream mix.
- Mile High Biscuits are the first flaw-free biscuits I've ever made. Seriously, don't skip the advice to use cold butter and refrain from overhandling the dough. Preheating your oven and preportioning your ingredients are crucial here, too.
- Don't cheap out on the ingredients. Normally I have fat free milk, some sort of buttery spread and maybe some dry coffee creamer packets on hand. But for these three recipes, I bought high quality European butter, full fat milk, heavy whipping cream and real vanilla. I think it made a huge difference in the taste and textures.