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It’s been an interesting year, hasn’t it? I’ve been on a bit of a bender lately, getting rid of (or at least, reducing) paperwork that’s been piling up and holds little interest for me. I have so much that I had to buy more paper (as in, paper file folders) to store all that paperwork in which seems redundant, but living in a place where paper still rules supreme, and digitizing takes as long as filing, I’m stuck filing and storing.

One change in the world of paper has been food blogs, which started out for many as being places where you could “store” and share your favorite recipes. But I’ve noticed over the last few years that food blogs have become a lot slicker, more polished, and often “aspirational.” While I’m jealous of those who have the talent, and patience, for writing for search engines, and arranging flowers on top of multi-layer cakes, I really just enjoy cooking and baking.

I’m still a bit stuck in the past. And I’m also stuck with two folders that I’ve had for nearly twenty years, which traveled across the Atlantic with me, from the days of yore. They’re recipes that I clipped from magazines while I was culling them and in the old days, we just keep them in files.

They’ve been lingering in my office for years and I recently put the question to readers on Instagram whether I should bake and cook through them here on the blog, or toss ’em, even if it meant posting some duds. Around 95% of the people said to make them here, even if they don’t come out as imagined, and some (who think I have more time on my hands than I do…) suggested I “fix” recipes that I don’t love, to make them right. Recipe testing is a lot of work and I’d prefer to work on my own recipes than fix someone else’s, thanks. And a number of people offered “Just throw them away and unburden yourself” which is also compelling advice.

The latter is easier said than done, though, and I’m sure many of you agree with me and I think I’m stuck with these recipes that need to be made. And I thought I’d start with these Butterscotch Bars, mostly because I’ve had two bags of butterscotch chips with an expiration date that I won’t share with you, in my kitchen drawer, that I’ve been reluctant to throw out since I hauled them back from the U.S. who-remembers-when.

What’s funny is that I can barely remember what I had for lunch today but I remember buying these thinking I’d make Scotcheroos with them. I haven’t had them in years, but I remember a friend making them for a party in San Francisco and when I asked where he got the recipe, he said it was included in his PG&E bill (gas & electric), which of course, marks another date: When utility bills included recipes with them. The real kicker is that the recipe requires six cups of Rice Krispies so that makes them a no-go from the start around here. (Plus the recipe calls for 1 full cup/250ml of corn syrup, which would give people the vapors.)

Lest you look down on butterscotch chips, they’re not a regular part of my diet. However over the years, and mostly last year, I realized how lucky we are just to have the variety of foods that most of us have available to us. Also, life is short. While I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, having a tablespoon of butterscotch chips once every few years isn’t the fin du monde. Even Alice Waters admits to having had a few airport hot dogs and bags of chips.

I have a friend who was the pastry chef at a top-notch restaurant that had highly acclaimed butterscotch pudding on the menu. When I asked why hers was so good, she answered “Butterscotch Chips.” So if it’s good enough for diners at a fancy restaurant, it’s good enough for you and me.

These came from Cooking Light magazine, which no longer publishes a magazine. I wrote for them a few times back then, which was fun because I got to play around with recipes to make them low fat. They weren’t, however, low sugar. But back in the day, people weren’t as concerned about that as they are now. I grew up eating sugar straight from packets of sugar taken from the bowl at restaurants my parents took us out to for dinner, and I often bought rock candy (below); hard, large crystals of sugar you simply sucked on, which proudly announced it was made of “100% pure cane sugar.” Nowadays, if a parent gave a kid something like that, you’d get in as much trouble as if you stuck a lit cigarette in their mouth.

If you’re avoiding sugar, you probably want to stay away from recipes that have “butterscotch” in the title. The original recipe is a little radine (cheap) with the butterscotch chips, so I bumped them up because I want to get them off my hands, and reclaim that space in my pantry, and because I like butterscotch.

Another thing about magazine recipes from those days is that since space equaled money, an ad was worth more than words in a recipe, so recipes were a lot more concise than they are now, whereas online you can write and write and write. Recipes didn’t need to specify that yes, if you didn’t have a stand mixer, you could mix the ingredients by hand. They rarely told you how long you could keep a cake or batch of cookies, and if they could be frozen. But they were good lessons in how to be concise and get to the point, rather than – uh – meander, like I’m doing here.

The original recipe for these Butterscotch Bars was a mere 2×3-inch square, but in there, they do tell you precisely how to measure flour; lightly spoon into dry measuring cups and level with a knife, and they were already remarkably precise about baking times. None of this “About 25 to 30 minutes” business. This said precisely “28 minutes.”

The upside is that the recipe is simplicity in itself. Basically you’re just mixing everything up in a bowl, spreading it in a pan, strewing some butterscotch chips over the top – the Spanish translation on one package refers to them as trocitos de caramelo y mantequilla, which is more literal since butterscotch is something made with brown sugar, not necessarily caramel. (“Butterscotch” is sort of a challenge to translate in any language and I don’t know how you’d say it in French either.) However they were popular with my favorite Frenchman who marveled at their buttery, toffee-like taste, which I couldn’t describe very well, but he was too busy eating them to notice.

Butterscotch Bars

Adapted from Cooking Light
These simple bars are deceptively packed with butterscotch flavor courtesy of brown sugar and butterscotch chips. I used dark brown sugar for a more assertive flavor, but feel free to use light brown sugar if that's your preference. Note that light brown sugar will make them lighter in color than the ones shown here. (In France, cassonade and sucre vergoise are both available at natural foods stores, supermarkets, and Marks & Spencer food shops, sold as muscovado sugar.) You can read more on French sugars here.
A reader alerted me to Salted Caramel Chips made by King Arthur, which might work well in these in place of the butterscotch chips, although I haven't tried them yet.
I didn't tinker too much with the recipe although the original recipe called for "2 egg whites" and I didn't think an extra egg yolk would throw the recipe off, which it didn't. You might get away with adding the second egg yolk (rather than just the egg white), and if you do try it, let us know how they turn out. I also upped the butterscotch chips and salt, and decided to bake the bars in a foil lined baking pan so they lift out easier. You can see how to line a baking pan with foil here.
Course Dessert
Servings 20 servings
  • 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (90g) packed light or dark brown sugar
  • 4 tablespoons (55g, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups (175g) flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup (140g) butterscotch chips
  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC.) Line the inside of an 8-inch (20cm) square baking pan with foil so it overhangs up and over the edges, which'll make the bars easier to lift out after baking. Butter the foil with melted butter or spray with non-stick spray.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand in a medium bowl, beat together the two sugars and butter at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, egg white and vanilla, and beat on medium speed, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides, until well incorporated.
  • In a small, separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until well mixed in. You may need to give it a few stirs with a spatula until it's smooth.
  • Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Strew the butterscotch chips evenly over the top. Bake the butterscotch bars until the top is moderately golden brown and feels just set in the center when you touch it, about 22-25 minutes.
  • Let cool on a wire rack. When cool, lift the bars out of the pan, remove the foil, and cut into rectangles.

Notes

Storage: The bars will keep up to five days in an air-tight container at room temperature, or they can be frozen. These bars are quite firm just after they're baked but the texture will change as they sit, and will soften up a day or two later. 
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94 comments

    • Wendy Bussell

    Thank you David for the reminder of butterscotch bars. This is a recipe I remember well, as its one of my favorites. Alas, I am the only one who likes them, so they don’t get made very often anymore. Time to make a batch and freeze the rest for another day. One thing I love about this recipe, is that instead of white sugar, I use all brown, and it just makes a much more toffee like flavor. I do bake them a bit more, maybe 3-4 minutes. No more than that. Oh, Gosh! Now I have to go shopping!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It’s funny because the original recipe just said “brown sugar” and didn’t specify dark or light, so of course, I went with dark. I found them really butterscotchy with the posted amount of dark brown sugar but the lighter ones might be better for some people who want, well…a lighter bar! Glad you like them with all brown sugar : )

    • Paulette

    Thank you for this recipes and mentioning the scotcharoos! They were a staple in my house in the 70’s as a kid. Indescribable goodness! Thanks for the recipe, too! Nothing like good childhood memories!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I didn’t grow up on them and a friend in San Francisco brought them to a party and was wowed by how good they were – I’d only had Rice Krispie Treats and they were a world away. And the name is more fun to say, too!

        • Paulette

        i grew up in Southern California and mom wasn’t big on us having sweets. She would cut the amount of sugar that Kool-Aid called for and who wants to drink that! But I took a lot of that kinda thing into my adulthood and am glad for our “healthy” meals. Regular Rice Krispies treats do not hold a candle to scotharoos!

    • Lyn

    Reminds me of the delicious Oatmeal Scotchies that my college roommate introduced me to. I didn’t think I liked butterscotch until I tasted those bars!

    • Rosemary

    Very much a cookbook and food magazine collector here, (my family have been printers for three generations and I love the printed word as well as digital). I tear out all the advertising pages thinking they will take up less room, lol. Just looking at the cover of August, 2011 Bon Appetit, with a picture of a Lime Meringue Pie with Blackberries on it that I’m thinking of making. https://backissues.com/issue/Bon-Appetit-August-2011

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      When Bon Appétit was a different magazine, before Condé Nast buried Gourmet and recast Bon App, the test kitchens were similar and all the recipes were rigorously tested, so they worked. I suspect the current recipe testers there are very good as well, but back in the day, they were the gold standard.

    • Karin Pereira

    My honest opinions are that I truly prefer YOU and your style of a truly delicious food life any day compared to a lot of blogs where you can feel the marketing gurus are out for you. Not that I am constantly looking for recipes which make me happy and fill the “need” of my daily life and that includes the French ones. And let’s not forget the cocktail hours.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I was talking to a friend who is a food writing coach and editor and she compared many food blogs today to ‘mini media empires’ as people have teams, recipe developers, productions studios, or they send their recipes to professional photographers for their blogs. (I was surprised when she told me that! I know some people have teams and work with others but didn’t know how widespread it was.) Part of it is a generational shift, and the evolution of blogs, and it’s interesting to see how things have changed.

        • jane

        People just want a way to make a living that doesn’t require working for someone else – the internet allows that. It’s inevitable. But I love and appreciate how clean and simple your blog is and would guess it has been financially supportive as well. Less is more, has always been true. It helps that your personality really shines in your writing and *that* is why we’re all here – aside from the delicious recipes .

        PS: I just made a ganache covered steamed chocolate cake yesterday – vegan to boot – and it is fricken so good! Have you tried making steamed cake? Works amazingly well – who knew?

          • Liz C

          Well said. David’s blog is much more interesting (and the recipes more reliable!) than any other I read. I really enjoy every post and it’s had a big influence on my cooking.

    • Kathleen

    What a fun blast from the past! Thanks for this. I also collected clipping after clipping of interesting recipes I wanted to make and filed them away for future use. But 10 years became 20 and when they didn’t get made I figured they just weren’t that interesting after all and they are now part of some Amazon box made with post consumer content. So, David, I recommend you recycle all but the recipe clippings that hold good memories and get some space back in your filing cabinet.

    • Mom24

    I love that you’re going to do this!! Thank you. ❤️

    • Terry

    I bought butterscotch chips just the other day! I used to bake great butterscotch bars back in our gluten-filled days, but now have to bake gluten free butterscotch bars. Thanks for the incentive to bake them this week!

    • Barbara

    Many, many years ago a friend and I agreed we has a recipe clipping habit. She suggested we make a box like the one kids used at school for Valentines Day with a slit at the top. Clip recipe, put in box and at the end of the year throw out the recipes and start anew. Of course we never did and files continued to burgeon as they do to this day.

    • Claudine Elise Richman

    I love butterscotch and want to use these to make Blondies to mix into vanilla ice cream!

    • M’liss

    Some of my most loved & repeated recipes come from newspaper & magazine clips. Some hold up with age & some make you wonder what you were thinking.
    Every few years I look up the Butterscotch Brownies recipe from the 1960’s Joy of Cooking & wonder why I don’t make them more often.
    Theirs’ don’t include butterscotch chips. Can’t wait to try this recipe.

    • Terry

    David, I loved this article. When we sold our house, I realized I had probably hundreds of clipped recipes from newspapers, magazines, etc. It was painstaking, but I went thru each one & either tossed, kept, or digitized. There were some recipes that I just had to keep the physical clipping, even though I also made a digital copy. There is something very comforting about having these clipped recipes. I also write a blog, but it’s definitely not one of those slickly produced types. It’s just about the food! Thank you for writing about this.

    • Mary

    I have a recipe clipping habit too ! When the drawer I keep them in gets too full, I go through them and usually end up tossing at least half of them. Each time I do this, I tell myself I really need to start making more of the recipes I’ve always loved butterscotch so I need to make these bars. Sally’s Baking Addiction has a recipe for Scotcheroos using honey in place of corn syrup.

    • Rebecca

    My mom was a clipper, and she would buy those recipe booklets sold at the checkout line to boot. Her collection years were before the internet really kicked in, so it was all paper. She worked at Land O’ Lakes so many of the booklets had their branding. I had to clean out her office as she declined with Alzheimer’s and was truly overwhelmed–I wanted to keep some recipes, but how to sort through it all? I ended up keeping handwritten/typed ones that were memorable to me, and a few clippings that were interesting, but I realized that I had my own set to cultivate and if I ever wanted a recipe for “x,” I could google it. All this to say one thing: as I maintain my paper and electronic files, I am often reminded that someone else is going to have to dispose of it all, so I only keep what is of value to me. Use or lose it, as my mom used to say.

    • Querino de Freitas

    ITS SO SIMPLE TO MAKE, I WILL HAVE TO SHOP AROUND FOR THE BUTTERSCOTCH CHIPS..I NOTICED IN THE PHOTO YOU PLACED HE BUTTERSCOTCH CHIPS OVER THE FOIL..BUT THE METHOD IN PRINT YOU PLACE THE CHIP ON TOP OF THE BATTER…I SUPPOSE IT WOULD NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO THE TASTE…HAPPY COOKING FROM QUERINO,,,

      • Naomi D.

      I don’t see any foil. Put the chips on top of the batter.

    • Diane

    I too had brimming files of recipes. It was a huge burden lifted when I tossed (recycled) them all last year.

    • Stacy

    Please tell me that butterscotch pudding was from Bradley Ogden. I so miss his restaurant in Vegas and that butterscotch pudding.
    Also, I prefer blogs and recipes from you and Deb Perelman. Solid unfussy food with well written commentary.
    Thanks for all you do.

    • Terry S.

    I had a recipe file like yours, only it was in a very large binder with 20 plus years of clippings. I purged it when I redid my kitchen. Only a few recipes survived! I spent a lot of time wondering why I had clipped some! These bars look delicious!

    • Karen

    In Canada, we call butterscotch “caramel ecossais” or “caramel au beurre” in French.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      In France, something with that flavor I think it might just be called cassonade, which is just brown cane sugar, since it’s technically not caramel – but I’m going to ask around with some French friends who bake or check out the supermarket cookie aisle to see if there are any clues there ;)

    • sarahb1313

    so funny- I too would pour sugar into my mouth at restaurants… I would have never allowed my adult kids to do so, but marvel that I was allowed!

    The funny thing about this recipe, is it seems to beg for variation. I could totally see myself at a minimum adding pecans or walnuts. And then perhaps there would be some dried fruit to help it along and give that chewy feel. But I know, it is just as likely good in it’s pure form. Except for the nuts. I think it would definitely benefit from nuts…

    • Mari

    I too have a box full of clipped recipes. And now, I also have my grandmother’s! Thanks for reminiscing. I used to sneak into my mom’s office break room and help myself to a many sugar cubes. Rock candy was a delight. About 20 years ago, I came across some and found it too sweet now.

    • farmerpam

    Thanks for the laugh. I, too, had folders and folders of clipped recipes from the “olden days”, BC=before computers. I had lots of time on my hands last year, and got rid of most of them. Unburden yourself David, live a little. ;)

    • Katy L

    Seeing a recipe from the old SF Chron brought back many memories… it was a go to as a twentysomething, exploring cooking. And I love butterscotch bars, thanks for sharing.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I know…right? When I saw that one it brought back a lot of memories of SF Chron Food Section recipes. There was (and is) so much talent there.

    • Peter

    beurre-ecosse?
    Just a thought…

    • Cyndy

    Funny, yesterday I was thinking I must go through (read that throw out) the three-inch-thick folder of recipes I’ve been tearing out of magazines since the ’70s. I bet I have 20+ different ways to cook a pork tenderloin. Many of those recipes went out of style eons ago or are now considered heart-attack material.

    Remember when Gourmet Magazine put the entire recipe in paragraph form? I do!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It’s funny because a lot of my “savory” recipes are for some sort of braised meat, with Korean, Vietnamese, or other seasonings and flavorings inspired by Asian cultures and cuisine. (Although a few have chipotle in them, and I am sure there are some pork tenderloin recipes in there too!)

    • Toni

    I, too, had folders full of clipped recipes. When we moved a couple of years ago, I finally discarded them. I knew I’d never get around to making all of them and figured if I hadn’t done it by now, it wasn’t worth the effort.
    But the most interesting item in this post is the age of the chips. It’s gotten so I’m afraid to use anything past the posted date and many things go in the trash as a result. I’m going to take a lesson from you and not be so quick to discard!

    • Nan

    I vote for the lamb shanks with honey-kumquat sauce to be the next recipe you try — sounds delicious! (My own recipe “folder,” which eventually grew into a box, contains a number of recipes in that same familiar format, clipped from the SF Chronicle during the 1990s).

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I was looking at that but it calls for a lot of turmeric and Romain has braces on his teeth which are plastic and turmeric will stain them yellow. I could leave it out but think it’s an important flavor in the sauce so might have to retool it a bit.

    • Margaret

    David, when you mentioned Butterscotch pudding at a restaurant, were you referring to the late Lark Creek Inn? My husband ordered it for dessert one time. It came in a tall tulip glass and he ate about 2/3. I asked why he didn’t finish it and he said, “I hit the butterscotch wall.”

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      yes, it was…and I love your husband’s response!

    • Cappy

    Do you think browning the butter would punch up the butterscotchiness even more? Or would that just be too much?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I don’t think it’d make that much difference as there isn’t that much better in the recipe and it would be overwhelmed I think by the brown sugar flavor. No need to wash another pan ;)

    • Karen

    I’ve been making all my magazine clippings since covid. And either culling or keeping the recipe. Some I’ve had for over 20 years. But I’ve found some gems amongst them. Hope you do too, for our sake

    • Susan

    My childhood included Blondies but as my mother made outstanding brownies she didn’t make them too often. I think Blondies had a butterscotch component to them but I don’t recall butterscotch chips. I think it’s time to give this recipe a whirl!! Thank you David.

    • Seana

    I had one large folder of clipped recipes, which I pared down to one small book of keepers and family favourites, rigorously tested. But I have now realised, upon saving your Butterscotch Bar recipe, that the “recipe” folder on my hard drive is growing at an alarming rate!

    • Marsha

    Do you know of Tamar Adler? She wrote “Something Old, Something New:Classic Recipes Revised” which I’m just getting into. But reminded me of your dilemma of what to do with folders of clippings. She chose revise. No “Butterscotch Bars” though.

    • Susan Riggs

    Great post!
    And this reminded me of Blue Ribbon Pizza in Encinitas, CA. My husband and I love their pizza but the butterscotch pudding topped with salted caramel was the greatest.

    • Didi Sinclair

    This was such a lovely blog. Like many of your commenter, I too have folders of old recipes… sometimes when I look thru them I wonder what possessed me to clip them. The cherished ones are the old newspaper clippings my mum sent to me, with her writing at the top “maybe you can make this for me sometime”. Those will never get thrown out. David, you are such a gift to us. Thank you.

    • Michele/pdxknitterati

    Aspirational? I aspire to take food pictures as beautiful as yours!

    I remember Oatmeal Scotchies, a lovely lacy cookie.

    Now I need to make yours.

    • gauri

    Could we sub almond flour?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I think they would fall apart but if you are gluten-free, a gluten-free flour substitute (there are several brands out there) might work. If you give it a go, let us know how they come out!

    • Suse

    David: I have fond memories of cooking the monthly PG&E recipe with my mom. I still have some of these, as well as many of her clipped recipes.

    p.s. This bar recipe would be great with bittersweet chocolate chips subbed for butterscotch, as a variation.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I was wondering how chocolate chips would work out but didn’t try ’em. (If you or anyone does try them, let us know how they work out.) Yes it’s funny that PG&E used to include recipes with your bills, and other utility companies in the U.S. did too. Perhaps the motivation was to get people to use more gas and electricity baking and cooking? Or they just wanted to be helpful..or soften the blow of a utility bill : )

    • Nancy B

    I loved this article, and all the comments as well…my mom made Scotcheroos and mailed them to me in college. The smell as I opened them in my dorm room couldn’t be contained, girls came from every direction and in a flash the box was empty. I still make them (as written) and send them to my grandkids to carry on the tradition.
    I’m also a recipe clipper/saver with several binders containing old and now yellowing treasures which I just cannot part with. The newer ones I do jettison every so often, more easily as they just seem to be a re-working of the old ones I still intend to make!

    • Nitsa

    Hi
    Can i freeze the batter, and bake later?
    Thanks

    • Lynne

    Love this article! And I too had piles of clippings and printed out recipes from the internet (because it’s easier sometimes to work from something printed rather than a computer or phone screen, hence the continued sales of cookery books) so I went through them and simply asked myself ‘Can you see yourself ever making this?’ it was horrifying how many I realised I just would not, no matter how enticing they seemed at the time. So I now have a single folder (pvc so wipe clean, I’m not a tidy cook) of ones I use often, and that’s good enough for me.
    As for your initial comment about food blogs and aspirationality (is that a word?) I prefer chatty, blogs like yours that are about the art of cookery, how it feels, how it might taste, and a nice recipe. I am not interested in how someone has artificially styled their photos, just give me a picture of what I can hope to get… which, of course, is why I love your blog. Thanks.

    • Susan Lopez

    I feel your pain in not wanting to part with long held recipe clippings. I’ve investigated scanning apps that read the recipe and put them in digital format. I hope this finally unburdens me.

      • Linda Eifer

      I downloaded the Paprika App. It changed my life and freed up an entire closet full of recipes in various stages – pages, cut out, pasted, categorized… You get the picture. As Paprika is a web browser as well as a place to file recipes, there is no problem downloading recipes from other sites. Hope this helps, Linda

        • Victoria

        I used the Basil recipe app for years and spent so much time downloading recipes and also cherished family/friend recipes. However last year I lost everything when I was on the phone with an Apple rep updating my iPad. I emailed Basil trying to recover but got no answer.

    • dr

    Love your meanderings !!

    Need to weed my « recipe folders » too! Thanks for the nudge.

    • Kristina

    I am in Sydney Australia and tried to find these butterscotch chips but only available for about $160 for several pounds. That can’t be right!! Maybe it is a US thing ‍♀️Kristina

    • Saurs

    I want to love butterscotch chips because the smell is delightful and the initial taste is very appealing before the sugar starts to hurt. I snack on la perruche rough cubes, so I can handle sugar bombs just fine.

    I used to sub out butterscotch chips for caramelized white chocolate shards, enriched with a dash of “butter” emulsion/extract, but I’ve found that gently melting the chips themselves to make shards really does temper them, ever so slightly, for cookies and bars and such. I’d advise people to try that for recipes like this, that calls for chips.

    • carol copeland

    I thought it said cool on a wine rack. Ha.Do you think brown butter, hardened up would give it an even more caramelly taste?Also a shop near me in Cambridge MA sells Guittard butterschotch chips. Do you think it would make any difference. I bought some for my husbnd to make oatmeal scotchies and I am disappointed in myself to say I couldn’t taste much difference.

      • Tony B

      IMO Guittard butterscotch chips are much better tasting! You are lucky to have them near you, they can be difficult to find. I was going to recommend them to David to pick up next time he is in SF!
      When I moved to SF in the 00s, I found many restaurants had butterscotch pudding on the menu and tried to discover the best. First one I had in a foggy night in Half Moon Bay still stands out as the best memory.
      I also have a big stockpile of clippings many from Cooking Light in the 90s. Remember their end of year indexes, I still make some of those recipes today!

    • Nancy

    Thanks for sharing! I recently culled my 20 year old collection of clippings as well, made a pledge to use and/or toss, and discovered an old Cooking Light gem from Leslie Revsin. I’d never heard of her, but that recipe has become a regular for us, and we now have one of her cookbooks. Please keep posting and blogging your clipping adventures, it’s entertaining and inspiring!!

    • Liane

    I solved the clipping dilemma a year ago. Using a scanning app on my phone, I took pictures of 4 large binders of home recipes, clippings, recipes sent to me, etc. I then opened them with a related note app. I can word search even the clippings and it was easy to tag recipes with basic labels like in a notebook that are also searchable. It was only a day’s work, but how it has simplified my life! I do still keep one small binder of printed frequently used recipes.

    Maybe butterscotch bars will be added to those soon as I get some chips. Meanwhile, reading this made me crave your Ginger Crunch recipe, a favorite. Might just have to do that today since no stores need be visited.

    • Stacey H.

    Love the PG & E reference (Bay Area girl transplanted to Seattle). I just whipped up a batch using two eggs. Oddly, they took about 7 minutes longer to get any color, even in my 9×9 pan. They smell divine.

    If you really want to delve further into butterscotch flavor profiles look into “Nordy Bars” which was a blondie like confection sold in Nordstrom Cafes in the ’80’s. You melt butter and butterscotch chips, then add brown sugar, eggs, flour etc… The melted butterscotch chips act partly as fat, partly as sugar, and create a butterscotch blondie type base. The mix ins are pecans, marshmallows and chocolate chips. They are awesome, and always I hit. I would be fascinated to see what magic you could manage with them.

      • Christine

      I not only have large piles of cut out recipes but magazines ( Gourmet and cooking light )that go back to 2005.
      I have started to go through the cut out bits and pieces and have just discovered that I throw a lot more away when I have just finished a meal.
      I also found 10 recipes for Panna Cotta ! I do so enjoy your blog ,its like a friend talking to you.

    • Jennifer

    This recipe is perfect timing as I’m packing my house and preparing for a move from the USA to Norway. I’ve taken inventory of my baking supplies and have a bag of butterscotch chips that needed a recipe and this looks perfect. Thanks!
    I’ve also noted, in the back of my mind, that we should be cautious about buying a house in Norway with the intent of remodeling it based on your experience detailed in “L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home” so thanks for that warning. :)

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Well, perhaps you can use my experience of what not to do ; )

      There’s an interesting book by Melissa Dalton-Bradford, Global Mom, about moving her family to Norway (and France), which is quite touching that you might enjoy reading. Good luck with the move!

    • Patricia

    Good Morning David,

    I love your writings and can so relate to this story of saving recipes. I have boxes and binders of recipes that I have saved over the years. I will never be able to make all the recpies I’ve saved from magazines, friends, cooking classes etc. in my lifetime. (I’m 74). I love to both cook and bake.
    I just retired from my job in 2020 and trying as you are to weed through all the paper recipes I have saved over the years.
    I can’t wait to make these after reading your story. It will be another recipe to save to my collection!
    I love watching and listening to you on IG. You are such a sweet interesting person.
    Have a wonderful day
    Patricia…living in New York.USA

    • Mike Quear

    The mention of rock candy brought to mind a most excellent Hoosier cough syrup.
    Dump as much rock candy in a fifth of whisky as you can. Macerate ’till your first cough or you’re feeling flusterated – take a swallow or 2. Continue to top off with rock candy. Enjoy.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      There’s a wonderful rye whiskey made in Brooklyn called Rock and Rye which is made that way, with rock sugar. It’s good stuff!

    • Ellen

    Made them with 2 whole eggs and a little extra flour to offset the thinness of the batter. They were cake-ier. Also added Guittard chocolate chips to the butterscotch chips on the top. My book group thought they were amazing. My slightly more discerning family (and I) thought the bar was great but the butterscotch chips were too sweet. Still yummy on a Friday night.

    • Margaret

    My Mom used to make butterscotch, lemon and chocolate meringue pies in the 50’s and 60’s, and butterscotch was my favorite. I wish I could find her recipe, I think she made the butterscotch from scratch, but maybe she used butterscotch chips? Did they even exist back then?

      • Susan

      There is a recipe for butterscotch pie online called, “Jolean’s Butterscotch Pie. A Pennsylvania Dutch Recipe” it’s a meringue topped pie. It is delicious, the butterscotch flavor is deeper using dark brown sugar. The method is kind of tedious but follow it anyway..unless you are familiar with other ways to get it thickened faster..

    • Jennifer

    The Christmas before last, I went online to look for a recipe for a particular cookie that my mom makes every year. I couldn’t find any reference to the cookie and was starting to question my own memory until I found it in a digitized cookbook that a Milwaukee electric company published in 1958 (tagline: “Be Modern…Cook Electrically”). It’s on a website that compiles old appliance manuals, of all places. And sure enough, my mom’s family is from Milwaukee.

    • Mindy

    Thanks for the post and now I’m going back to click on your Scotcheroos link. I acquired the new “salted caramel chips” from King Arthur and wanted to try them. Have you tried these yet? They’re a bit drier than regular butterscotch or chocolate chips but we liked the flavor. I made oatmeal walnut cookies with them, omitting spices that would normally be in oatmeal raisin cookies. They were delicious! I was thinking that adding cacao nibs would make them even better so I’m going to do that next. Side note for fellow bakers: I always toast nuts that are going to be mixed into a dough or batter.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I haven’t tried them but everything King Arthur does is pretty awesome so imagine they’re really good. (And thanks for letting me know about them. I’m going to add a link before the recipe in case people want something more “natural” to use!)

    • Kathleen Woods

    I LOVE your blog! Thank you for the recipes, and a huge thank you for your stories.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Thanks for reading! : )

    • Eleanor

    Forty years ago my 10 year old son made me a Mother’s Day gift: a scrapbook. He had pasted a relatively small portion of the hundreds of recipes I had collected into the book in some sort of order, main dishes, desserts, cakes, etc. He left pages blank so I could paste in more recipes (I never did).
    I still have the scrapbook and I refer to it when I need to remind myself how to make Gazpacho or zucchini bread or salade Nicoise…. I’m 90 years old and occasionally forgetful.
    I still have all the recipes, cut-outs, hand-written; they’re in a large manila envelope. Nowadays when I see a recipe I might want I print it out with my computer. I will make the butterscotch bars in a few days using two eggs.
    As for the scrapbook, it’s in tatters but I’ll never throw it away.

    • Anna

    Yours is one of the first food blogs I started religiously reading (via Smitten Kitchen, or was it vice versa?) probably a decade or so ago, and I am thankful you haven’t gone SEO and/or ad crazy like some blogs. Finding out some that I liked were multi-bazillionaires with an entire team kind of turned me off when they pretended they were just this like the rest of us (and then turned around and recommended something way out of the average budget).

    Anyways, I vote for keeping the folders, but I’m nostalgic like that.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I interviewed Dianne Jacob the other day who wrote a book about how to become a food writer (and related things like writing a cookbook, blogging, etc) and she calls the new generation of food bloggers “mini food empires” since (I didn’t know) many farm out the recipes to paid recipes testers, send the recipes to photographers, and have teams working on SEO and all that stuff. (I do have an assistant now, Emily, who does some of the tech stuff that stumps me and now also writes posts once in a while about her life in Paris.) I’m of the generation of people who wrote about food because we loved to cook, bake and/or write, which is how food blogging started as well, but as most things go, people will jump into the pool for other reasons. The good thing about the internet is that you can “curate” what you read – so some folks can read and follow those blogs and others can find ones they like, for other reasons. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

    • Frances Schleien

    This is a recipe best left as a childhood memory. I found it totally lacking in any nuanced flavour as the sweetness was overwhelming. The one good thing about them is that the recipe is easy to cut. Remember that green jello filled with fruit cocktail and dream whip? This falls into the same genre.

    • heidipie

    I recognize the typeface of the old San Francisco Chronicle on that lamb shank clipping! For years I’ve been carrying around a recipe card from my mom for the black bean soup she used to make. The recipe was in an interesting red typeface. Recently I saw a website with a photo of an old menu of a restaurant in Miami, with that same red print, and realized my parents must have gone there on their honeymoon in 1954!

    • Jaimie

    Followed recipe and directions. Absolutely delicious. Next time will add some toasted chopped pecans to the butterscotch chips for a variation.

    • poppyxcheska

    Thanks for the laughs! So much of this post is relatable, even though Ive got to be 15-20 years younger than you (hem, hem!) sorry, I couldn’t resist being cheeky.

    I hear you on the light/dark brown sugar debate. I’m thinking of browning the butter. Too much?

    Also, why foil and not parchment? Long-time reader, but I don’t think I’ve heard you debate on this before.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Parchment paper tends to get brittle when heated/baked, so foil is the option I prefer. Plus it conforms to be pan better. I’ve not browned the butter for these as it adds a step that (to me) is likely not necessary. But if you do try it let us know how it turns out. (And also, if you do try it, I’d add more butter for moisture, since you’re cooking off some of the water/liquid when you brown the butter…)

        • Poppyxcheska

        Genius for suggesting to use more butter to account for moisture loss! Didn’t think of that. You’re a peach!

    • Clara

    I made these recently and took them to a picnic. Everyone, including my husband and I, loved them. One person asked me for the recipe so that she could make them for her grandchildren.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Happy they were popular!

    • Jen

    I love everything butterscotch and have very fond memories of Scotcharoos. Last time I ate one I noticed how very sweet it is — the down side of cutting back on sugar is losing one’s taste for super-sweet goodies. I am going to try your recipe for Butterscotch Bars. I bet subbing chocolate chips for butterscotch chips would create something like a chocolate-chip-cookie bar since the other ingredients are very similar.

A

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