Salted Caramel Butterscotch Budino (Italian Pudding)

• It is very helpful if you get all of the ingredients out and measured before beginning.

Make the salted caramel:

• Use a saucepan that has a heavy, light-colored bottom so you can keep an eye on the color. In the pan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Swirl (not stir) to caramelize evenly. When the caramel reaches a golden honey color, remove from heat. Carefully stir in the cream. This mixture will bubble up so be careful. Immediately add butter, vanilla, and salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside. This mixture will not harden so don't worry about it cooling.

Make the pudding:

• In a saucepan with a light-colored bottom, combine the maple syrup, brown sugar, water and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the mixture darkens slightly in color.
• Combine egg and egg yolks in a large heat-proof bowl with the cornstarch. Whisk to combine. Add a small amount of the brown sugar mixture to the eggs and whisk. This is called tempering. If you added all of the hot mixture at once because it would scramble your eggs. Not good. Continue adding brown sugar mixture to eggs in a slow stream, whisking continuously.
• Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over a medium heat, stirring continuously. As soon as mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency, remove from heat. Spoon mixture into 4 to 6 ramekins or dessert dishes. Spoon caramel over the pudding.
• *Note I don't scrape the bottom of the caramel pan when spooning caramel out of the pan. Sometimes the solids will harden on the bottom of your pan. They don't look good and can be overly salty. Also not good.
• Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving.
• Sprinkle lightly with flaked salt and top with whipped cream right before serving.