{"id":605,"date":"2019-11-28T03:36:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T03:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/?p=605"},"modified":"2019-11-28T03:56:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T03:56:14","slug":"christinias-test-kitchen-putting-the-scotch-in-butterscotch-this-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/2019\/11\/28\/christinias-test-kitchen-putting-the-scotch-in-butterscotch-this-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Christinia\u2019s Test Kitchen: Putting the scotch in butterscotch this Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019m starting to think about what vessel to use for next year\u2019s cooking adventures, I realized that I haven\u2019t always used my wonderful Dutch oven to its full potential. That is, I\u2019ve often made the types of things you *expect* to be made in a Dutch oven but not those things that you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This week presented the perfect opportunity to remind myself that it can do just about anything.<\/p>\n

Now, traditionally I make my pudding (or custard) in a tall, skinny saucepan, but honestly, there\u2019s no reason that it can\u2019t be made in Dutch oven. In fact, the wider surface area helped with getting the mixture to boil and bubble better and cause less trouble.<\/p>\n

So, I gave it a shot with this fantastic sounding butterscotch pudding recipe in Food & Wine<\/a>\u2019s Thanksgiving edition.<\/p>\n

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Butterscotch pudding ingredients.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I mentioned last week<\/a>, I\u2019m a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving, so my typically dessert consists of bourbon pecan pie and either pumpkin pie or some similar variation (basically, anything that calls for pumpkin spice–even though I mix my own–whether it\u2019s a pumpkin souffle or sometimes a sweet potato pie). Sure, there\u2019s no harm in extra dessert, but I wasn\u2019t expecting I\u2019d make this if it weren\u2019t for the excuse presented by this year\u2019s travel plans.<\/p>\n

What I learned is, uh, the scotch you use matters, even if the vessel didn\u2019t so much.<\/p>\n

I am (now) a big scotch person, after my sweetie and I took our highlands honeymoon. So, when the recipe called for actual scotch (rum as a substitute, but it\u2019s not called butter*rum* pudding), I looked at my vast collection of decent scotches, picked the cheapest (still a nice one), and one of the strongest, and then learned that scotch is pretty much the only flavoring agent so the peaty-ness<\/a> stuck.<\/p>\n

Of course, because I like that scotch (a Laphroaig<\/a>), I still enjoyed it, but I was not expecting its exact flavor to permeate through all the cream, egg, and butter. It did. If you are a scotch nerd like me, this translates to recommending that you probably don\u2019t use an Islay or islands<\/a> whisky and instead stick to a safe Speyside<\/a>. If you\u2019re not a scotch nerd, just consider if you actually like that scotch (or rum) flavor and want to taste a lot of it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also mixed with a sour cream-based whipped cream and gingersnaps so there\u2019s a lot of flavors to mix and the scotch did not overwhelm all the other flavors; still, it was present. We honestly did enjoy it quite a bit, even with its stronger flavor, but for those who don\u2019t love scotch, be sure to pick one you *do* like, or I guess, go with rum.<\/p>\n

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Happy Thanksgiving from me to you, and enjoy!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s what I did, sticking to the recipe (which thankfully I have the print version of, as the online version is missing a key ingredient. Side note: Employ and Pay copy editors<\/a>!!):<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the pudding<\/em><\/p>\n