Homemade Butterscotch Baking Chips
By
Check one more item off the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge List! We have Butterscotch Chips!
These are more than just a little bit sweet – wowza, these chips are quite sugary. Therefore, I must advise that you don’t eat the entire pan of butterscotch chips all in one sitting. I’m pretty sure you knew that already. I’m also pretty sure you are planning to eat plenty of vegetables before (and after) you make these. Right?
Here are the reasons I attempted Homemade Butterscotch Chips:
- Many of you wanted me to do this. I aim to please.
- Every single package of butterscotch chips I’ve seen on the market has hydrogenated oil in them. Bleh. It is very important to avoid hydrogenated oils.
- I need some Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies.
You will notice that I used organic brown sugar in this recipe instead of sucanat. I did this because I was afraid that the molasses flavor of the sucanat would effect the flavor of these chips, making them not taste like butterscotch. I had some organic brown sugar on hand, so I used it and was pleased with the results.
Homemade Butterscotch Chips
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (I used expeller pressed so as not to have a coconut flavor)
1 cup organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, melt together butter, coconut oil and brown sugar. Stir continually until all ingredients are mixed well, bringing the mixture ALMOST to a boil, then turning down the heat. Cook and stir some more on low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a liquid.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour the contents onto a parchment paper lined container. I used a pyrex 2 quart rectangle dish.
Place the dish into the fridge for 3-4 hours to allow the mixture to solidify. Cut or break the butterscotch into small “chips”.
Store them in an air tight container in the fridge.
And would you look at that? These homemade butterscotch chips make fantastic Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies! (I’ll share my recipe next week.)
Are you a fan of butterscotch chips? What’s your favorite way to use them?
Read about making Homemade Chocolate Chips here!
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Will these melt when mixed with peanut butter to make butterscotch confetti squares?
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Laura Reply:
December 1st, 2011 at 7:29 am
I’m not sure, they are quite soft, so they might. I’m not sure what butterscotch confetti squares are, but they sure sound good!
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Anna Reply:
December 1st, 2011 at 10:27 am
Very simple confection…you melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter together, add mini marshmallows when mixture is cool enough not to melt the marshmallows, press into a pan and let harden! A no-brainer, but really yummy for Christmas!
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Laura Reply:
December 4th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Sounds tasty!
I’m puzzled that neither your white choc. chip nor your butterscotch chip recipes include salt. Do you really not use any?
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Laura Reply:
December 10th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
No, I don’t use any, although I’m sure you can add a little without any problem.
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Well, I didn’t see this recipe until just now. I followed a different butterscotch recipe (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_butterscotch/) and am now wondering if I can use this sauce in the way that you describe above: I.e., put it in fridge, let it harden, and then use as chips in cookies. I think the only difference in the recipe I used and yours is coconut oil (I used none) and heavy cream (I used). Any ideas whether this will work?
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Laura Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I can’t say for sure, but I would think it should work.
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The butter and coconut oil never combined with the sugar and completely separated when I poured the mix into the tray. What happened? Does a lack of initial stirring cause this? So disappointed.
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Laura Reply:
January 25th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Not sure what happened, but it sounds like it may have needed to be cooked a little longer? Big bummer. :(
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Cami Reply:
May 1st, 2012 at 9:39 pm
I had a similar problem. I did get it to mix together but then when I put it on low, it separated. I thought maybe I had not cooked it long enough so I kept cooking. However, the longer I cooked it, the more it separated and the more the sugar seemed that it wasn’t going to dissolve and instead turn into candy. Any suggestions? How long do you think you usually cook it on low?
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Laura Reply:
May 3rd, 2012 at 7:35 pm
You might try running it through a food processor to see if that helps mix it better.
tussockgal Reply:
May 31st, 2012 at 12:04 pm
This happens when the sugar didn’t dissolve before the mix started cooking. An old problem with candy making. It usually happens when stirred before the sugar dissolved. Butter and sugar should be allowed to melt together over a lo
w heat undisturbed. Once sugar has melted you can stir.
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Christine Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Thanks so much for this response tussockgal! I had a terribly separated
mess! Rats – I’ll have to try it again, but today’s recipe is ruined.
I’m still excited to try this recipe though…
Wondering if you can make this with sucanat…..have you tried?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 9:39 am
that should work! :)
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Oh my goodness….Thank You for making these, Ive been looking forever for a quality recipe for buttercotch chips. I made these, nibbled on several, dropped one in my coffee(which was wonderful for a butterscotch junkie like me)and finally added the rest to an apple butterscotch cake recipe that called for chips and sundae sauce. I omitted the sundae sauce and found it to be plenty sweet without it. Your chips made a good cake recipe become obscenely delicious. I could control the world (or at least my family) with the power of your butterscotch. YUMMY
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Mine did the same as Cami and Jennifer’s… Wonder what pitbullmama did differently!! Seemed like too much oil and eventually u felt like I was frying the sugar! Very disappointed!!
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I’m not very familiar with coconut oil but use olive oil for all my cooking and baking. Would that work as a substitution?
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Laura Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 10:46 am
I don’t think olive oil would work very well for this because the chips wouldn’t solidify enough.
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Joy Reply:
January 23rd, 2013 at 10:06 am
We can’t use coconut oil in our house. Is there a different oil that you would recommend? I’m not averse to experimenting. :)
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Laura Reply:
January 24th, 2013 at 2:44 pm
Butter might work – maybe olive oil or palm shortening. :)
This looks yummy! Going to try to make these sometime; they have been my last real ‘junk food’ buy for a while now- I just love magic bars and brownies with butterscotch chips.
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I’ve been looking for butterscotch chips that do not have artificial ingredients or wheat/dairy/eggs. These fit the bill as long as I use our Earth Balance buttery sticks, so here’s hoping that will be successful. Thanks for posting this – I want to make Scotcheroos but haven’t been able to find butterscotch chips without the gunk in them.
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nikki Reply:
January 20th, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Did you make them with Earth Balance? I’d be interested to find out the results!
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I just made these because my friend was recently diagnosed with diabetes and I needed a sugarfree butterscotch chip recipe to use in his favorite haystack cookie. I used Wheylow (an incredible sweetener) and crossed my fingers. They turned out beautifully!!! Sugarfree haystacks complete! Thanks!!
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Mine separated as well…BUT…I kept stirring vigorously and it turned out beautifully. I think the key is to keep stirring (especially in the early stages). ;o)
Wonderful recipe. Thank you! <3
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Mine separated too! Did some research for second batch…found that if it separates again, add very hot water by the teaspoon to mixture. I used 3tsp and it came back together. Hope this helps.
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Just a quick question. I want to make some cream cheese flavored chips for a recipe idea for the fallowing cookies ( http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cookies/cream-cheese-cake-mix-cookies-8.html ) but have no clue where to start. ? Any ideas, please help?
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Laura Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 9:43 am
Oh wow, I’ve never heard of cream cheese flavored chips. Sounds yummy! Off the top of my head, I don’t have any ideas for making them.
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WELP, i tried numerous times and failed all. i find it odd that coconut oil is used. brown sugar has a melting point of roughly 360 to 370 and the oil clearly says use for temps below 325.
butter and oil didn’t mix once sugar was brought in.
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Hi! Loved the idea of making my own butterscotch chip since the aren’t sold here in Puerto Rico but it never mixed and the sugar never really dissolved. I almosts cried. And sad because real butter is sooo expensive here and having to throw it away was not funny. What may uou think happened. Thanks
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2013 at 8:32 am
Many have had that problem with this recipe. It seems that adding a step of mixing this well with a hand mixer helps really get the ingredients to stay together better.
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I just have one quick question: would this recipe work for haystack candy?
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2013 at 8:15 am
It’s worth a try!
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I could not for the life of me get the coconut oil to mix with the butter and brown sugar. No matter what I tried. It would not mix. At least all is not lost, I was able to turn it into toffee bits. I was really hoping for butterscotch chips but I just can’t get it to work. :(
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Curiosity question here: those of you who ended up with a grainy oily mess – did you use a nonstick pan? I had a similar experience several years ago when trying to make a caramel sauce by melting sugar. I stirred and stirred and STIRRED the (white) sugar in my nonstick pan and never could get it to melt – finally realized it was re-crystallizing as soon as it melted. Transfered to a regular stainless steel pan and it worked within minutes. So now I’m wondering if that might be the problem? Anybody else have any ideas?
Also, Cherina, I think the melting point of brown sugar wouldn’t factor in very much here – you aren’t necessarily melting the sugar as much as dissolving it. Sugar solutions can become liquid at much lower temperatures than sugar alone. Most candy recipes are cooked finished when they reach 250-300 – hard crack (like lollipops) is 300 and I would think these would be considered in the hard ball/soft crack stage (260-280). Hope that helps!
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