Butterscotch vs. Caramel

Main Difference

The main difference between Butterscotch and Caramel is that the Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter and Caramel is a confectionery product.

• Butterscotch

  Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter, but other ingredients are part of some recipes, such as corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshire, used treacle (molasses) in place of or in addition to sugar.

  Butterscotch is similar to toffee, but for butterscotch, the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage, not hard crack as with toffee. Often credited with their invention, Parkinson’s of Doncaster made butterscotch boiled sweets and sold them in tins, which became one of the town’s best known exports. They became famous in 1851 when Queen Victoria was presented with a tin when she visited the town. Butterscotch sauce, made of butterscotch and cream, is used as a topping for ice cream (particularly sundaes).

  The term butterscotch is also often used more specifically of the flavour of brown sugar and butter together even if the actual confection butterscotch is not involved, such as in butterscotch pudding.

• Caramel

  Caramel (, or ) is a medium to dark-orange confectionery product made by heating a variety of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard.

  The process of caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around 170 °C (338 °F). As the sugar heats, the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic color and flavor.

  A variety of candies, desserts, and confections are made with caramel: brittles, nougats, pralines, flan, crème brûlée, crème caramel, and caramel apples. Ice creams sometimes are flavored with or contain swirls of caramel.