Butterscotch is one of the best flavors God put on this earth–created on the fifth day, I think. I do like caramel a bit more (only because my mom makes the best caramels EVER) but butterscotch is similar enough to produce roughly the same reaction in me, which is: gimme gimme gimme.

So this post had me wondering how butterscotch got its name, and my guess was that actual scotch was used in it at one time. This seemed logical too since those butterscotch hard candies in the yellow cellophane always tasted vaguely alcoholic. But my super-thorough, ten-minute Web search produced the much lamer explanation that probably butterscotch was made originally in Scotland (where scotch is also made, coincidence?), and the name most likely came from the location.

This recipe is one my family members turn to whenever we want something sweet quick. No, store-bought cookies won’t do. And I’m not sure where the recipe came from originally, but we credit my Great-Great Aunt Avis, who, like me, did most of her cooking with the aid of cookbooks. I’ve brought these Butterscotch Brownies to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Movies Under the Stars, and people acted as if they were something really special. They’re so easy that it never occurred to me this was possible. But now that I think about it, easy and wonderful is a pretty special combination.

Someday I’ll make them with scotch mixed in.

Adjustments/Assessments: I can’t adjust and assess an ancient family recipe. Just try them. They’ve never let me down.