Butterscotch Pudding with Salted Caramel Sauce

In saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch and salt; add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
 

Stir small amount of hot mixture into yolks or egg; stir into hot mixture. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla. Pour into a bowl and cover top with plastic wrap; chill.

In a deep saucepan combine butter, sugar and half and half. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in vanilla (it will bubble up) and salt and cook 1 minute more. Pour into a jar; cover and refrigerate until cold.

To serve, spoon pudding into dishes. Microwave sauce briefly until smooth and pourable. Drizzle pudding with sauce. Garnish with dairy whipped topping. Refrigerate remaining sauce for other uses. Makes about ¾ cup sauce.

Note:  A small amount of the sauce stirred into plain nonfat yogurt is delicious for an almost skinny treat. Drizzle the sauce over bread pudding, rice pudding, ice cream, pound cake, cheesecake or stir into a latte.