Far Breton and homemade butterscotch sauce

In keeping with my commitment to using less butter in my recipes for the next few months, I searched for a dessert that was different from the cookies, breads and muffins that I have been posting about lately. I knew I found the perfect thing when I read about this Far Breton custard recipe on David Lebovitz's site. It checked all of my boxes: very little butter (1/2 stick) and sugar (1/2 cup) and it was a little unusual but still seemed pretty simple to make. (It was actually ridiculously quick and easy to make!) I prepped everything the night before I cooked it, per David's instructions, which took all of 20 minutes. Instead of using alcohol I steeped the prunes in Earl Grey tea, sweetened with a few tablespoons of sugar and a splash of rosewater.

David says to cook it in a 10" baking dish. I used a 9 x 13" glass Pyrex. Instead of scattering the prunes, I laid 15 of them in rows - 5 across, 3 down - so the cut custard would have one prune per bite, which I think worked really nicely. That meant that I have lots of extra prunes leftover: this morning I stirred some in my oatmeal and I think they'd be tasty in a bowl of plain Greek yogurt. This was an amazing dessert: so light and custard-y, full of vanilla flavor, exotic enough to seem complicated but was actually one of the easiest desserts I have ever made - with very little to clean up (Bonus!). My mom, brother, husband and two neighbors tried it and everyone agreed it was delicious.

In spite of my terrible photo: this was amazing

Sunday was warm day, and since the Far Breton was mostly eaten already, we all were craving a little ice cream after dinner. Mom offered to go to the store to pick some up, so while she was out, I threw together Smitten Kitchen's Butterscotch Sauce. It, too, is very quick and easy to make: I had it ready and cooling on the counter before mom got back with the ice cream. It's great because you can customize the saltiness level, and I like mine pretty salty. I doubled the recipe and sent mom home with a jar of it. It's one of those good recipes to keep in the back of your mind to throw together on a whim. I realize I totally broke my "less butter" rule with this one, but since you only use a little drizzle on a bowl of ice cream, I think I am still sort of in the parameters of my self-imposed butter ban :)