Butterscotch Syrup for Coffee

This homemade butterscotch syrup is exactly what you need to both sweeten your coffee and impart a delightful and real butterscotch flavor.

For all my butterscotch lovers out there, you’ll want to add this coffee syrup to your butterscotch repertoire along with my butterscotch ice cream sauce. If caramel is more your style, try my caramel syrup for coffee.

For ease of browsing, you can find all my butterscotch recipes in one place. Thanks so much for visiting!

Watch my Butterscotch Syrup web story here.

Butterscotch Syrup, At a Glance

✅Skill Level: Intermediate
✅Skills: Making Simple Syrup, Making Butterscotch
✅Type: Coffee and Dessert Syrup
✅Number of Ingredients: 6
✅Prep Time: 5 minutes
✅Cook Time: 10 minutes
✅Yield: about 1 cup

Jump Straight to the Recipe

This stuff is so much better than commercial coffee syrups. I made it yesterday and I’m hooked.

Beth from Aunt B’s Kitchen

You’ll Love This Butterscotch Syrup If

Friends, I am aware you can purchase coffee syrups. I have some store-bought ones myself.

Not all recipes are for everyone.

But let me tell you why you should make this particular recipe.

You’ll love this recipe if:

• You want to be in charge of how much cream/milk goes in your coffee. This recipe doesn’t contain any dairy other than some butter
• You love robust butterscotch flavor
• you’re not a fan of unnatural or artificial ingredients in your coffee syrups

That last one is a biggie for a lot of people.

Let’s just Regard the ingredient list for storebought butterscotch syrup, shall we?

• cane sugar
• dextrose
• fructose
• water
• natural flavor
• caramel color

Source: Amoretti website

By my count, that’s three different types of sugars, zero butter, and zero salt. Oh, and zero molasses.

As we all know, and as I say ad infinitum, true butterscotch flavor is made up of sugar plus molasses (or, in modern kitchens, dark brown sugar), butter, and salt cooked together until:

a)the butter browns and
b)the sugar caramelizes

If butterscotch coffee syrup sounds like magic to you, and you decide to make it, I have a favor to ask:

Ingredients You’ll Need

I’m glad you asked!

Let’s take a look at my ingredient list:

• water: used twice, once to make the simple syrup and again to dissolve the brown sugar to make a smooth butterscotch sauce
• granulated sugar: used for sweetness in the simple syrup
• brown sugar: gets cooked together with butter and salt plus a bit more water so it dissolves
• butter: provides the browned butter portion of the butterscotch flavor
• salt: has to be there, because salt is an integral part of the flavor profile
• vanilla extract: not strictly necessary, but it does round out the flavor very nicely, and who doesn’t like a touch of vanilla in their coffee?

This recipe was easy to follow. The result is delicious. I can’t wait to drop some in my cappuccinos! We enjoyed the flavor just from a spoon today. 

Reader Christy

Procedure

This is just a snapshot of how to make this recipe.

For the complete rundown, please scroll to the end of the post, or you can also jump there by clicking here.

1. Cook the water and granulated sugar together until all the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils for a few seconds. This is your simple syrup. Set aside convenient to the stove.
2. In a pot with a lid on it, cook brown sugar, water, butter, and salt together over medium heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Take the lid of the pan and cook mixture to 300-310F.
4. Carefully stir in half of the simple syrup into the butterscotch to stop the cooking.
5. Add the rest of the simple syrup and whisk until all the butterscotch has melted and the mixture is smooth.
6. Whisk in the vanilla and cool.

To Emulsify or Not

One of the issues with using a fatty ingredient (butter) in a water-based sauce is that the fat will rise to the top.

But for a butterscotch syrup, you really need the butter for the flavor.

What’s a person to do?

You have two choices. One, just heat the syrup in the microwave and stir well before adding it to your coffee.

You can also use your immersion blender to emulsify it.

The only issue with this is, the emulsion will break once you add it to hot coffee.

If you plan on using this butterscotch syrup to flavor your iced coffee, then go ahead and emulsify it. If you’re using it in hot coffee, I wouldn’t bother.

Here are two containers with the same syrup. I emulsified the fat into the syrup in the jar on the left.

All you have to do to emulsify it is to hit it with your immersion blender for a few seconds. The extreme speed with which that little blade spins is enough to force the butter and water into an emulsion.

How Much to Use

One pump of store bought coffee syrup is 10ml, which is roughly 2 teaspoons. 3 “pumps” yields about an ounce of syrup.

If you measure this recipe out in tablespoons, 2 tablespoons is about the equivalent of 3 pumps of syrup.

So now that you know that, if you’re a person who asks for a specific number of pumps of your favorite syrup when you go to the coffee shop, you should be able to make your homemade butterscotch latte as sweet (or not) as your favorite barista-made number.

The nutritional information for my recipe is written per tablespoon, or for about 1 1/2 pumps.

What If I Want Butterscotch Iced Coffee?

As I’ve stated above, the butter will solidify on top of the syrup once it’s cold. This makes it unsuitable, or at least off-putting, for an iced coffee.

If you want to use the butterscotch syrup for iced coffee, you have two choices:

1. Once the syrup is chilled, lift off the solidified butter and toss it (or use it for something else). The rest of the syrup will carry enough butterscotch flavor for it to come through in iced coffee
2. Rather than making the recipe with butter to begin with, just caramelize the brown sugar before adding the simple syrup. Leave the butter out entirely. Then add some butter emulsion and stir it in well.

Of the two options, I prefer option 1, but you can use whichever method works best for you. Enjoy!

Serving Suggestions

Friends, I cannot stress this enough. Put this butterscotch syrup in your coffee. Any coffee you like.

I myself am using it in my whipped coffee, replacing granulated sugar and water with some of this syrup and then whipping it together with instant coffee with my trusty frother before adding hot milk.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY consider adding this to your pumpkin spice latte. Butterscotch and pumpkin are a match made in heaven! I think it’d be especially good when subbed in for the powdered sugar in this pumpkin cream cold brew coffee recipe.

And for a butterscotchy white chocolate mocha, add equal parts of my white chocolate sauce and this butterscotch coffee syrup to your coffee. So good!

Use it as a syrup for pancakes or waffles.

If you’re looking for a hot butterscotch beverage for kids (or adults) who are not fans of coffee, try my hot butterscotch recipe. It’s a butterscotch spin on hot chocolate, and it is Delicious!

Q & A

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

A Note About Measurements

My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.

For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.

I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.

This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.

Did You Love This Syrup? Please Rate and Review!

And there you have it. The best butterscotch coffee syrup. I promise!

Thanks for spending some time with me today.

Take care, y’all.