I looooove sweet + salty. Chocolate covered pretzels, salted caramels, you name it-- and no, I am not above salting my fruit, either.

My lovely friend Katie shares my obsession, so when one day she was waxing poetic about salty chocolate shortbread with cocoa nibs, I knew I had to steal try out her idea.

And then somewhere along the way I stumbled across this, so it became regular shortbread with butterscotch.

Unfortunately the actual shortbread recipe I used turned out cookies that tasted kind of bland and wheaty (ever eaten one of those cookies from the dog bakery? yeah), but I'm going to try again and hopefully have a good recipe to share with you guys. In the meantime, please make this butterscotch sauce from smitten kitchen and put it on everything. Seriously. Just do it.

Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch Sauce
from the smitten kitchen

Yield: About 2/3 to 3/4 cup sauce

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark or light brown sugar (I used dark)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or 1/4 teaspoon regular salt), plus more to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, plus more to taste

Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt and whisk until well blended. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally.

Taste it and add more salt or vanilla as needed. I added a little whiskey. Goddamn that's good.

Footnote: You know what that sauce would be freaking amazing on? Buttermilk ice cream. Which, incidentally, she has an amazing recipe for as well.

Footnote sidenote: The midwest is a BUTTERMILK WASTELAND. Not only do I have to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get it, but half my class had never even tried it before enrolling in school. BLESS THEIR HEARTS.