It takes less than 10 minutes to make a jar of homemade hot fudge sauce.
One of my favorite food rules comes from Michael Pollan: “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” According to Pollan, “The fact that labor has been removed from special occasion food has made us treat it as everyday food. One way to curb that and still enjoy those foods is to make them.”
Ergo, if I want hot fudge sauce, per Pollan, I need to make it myself. Challenge accepted.
The key to delicious hot fudge is using the best possible chocolate you can get your hands on. For me, that meant Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and Guittard Cocoa Rouge Unsweetened Cocoa Powder.
I've made a version of this hot fudge sauce with heavy cream and another with half-and-half and found that either one works quite well in this recipe. And perhaps the best thing about this recipe is that it takes less than 10 minutes to make your own decadent jar of hot fudge from scratch. And while it tastes delicious served warm over a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream, it also is quite tasty eaten straight from the jar. Not that I have any experience with that ... um, right.
Hot Fudge Sauce (printer-friendly version)
makes about 2 cups
2/3 cup organic half-and-half (or heavy cream)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, divided into two equal portions
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. In a medium-size heavy saucepan, combine together the half-and-half, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, sea salt, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the chocolate sauce from the heat and stir in the remaining chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously until smooth and shiny.
4. Let the sauce cool slightly before serving over ice cream.
5. Any leftover chocolate sauce can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
makes about 2 cups
2/3 cup organic half-and-half (or heavy cream)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, divided into two equal portions
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. In a medium-size heavy saucepan, combine together the half-and-half, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, sea salt, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the chocolate sauce from the heat and stir in the remaining chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously until smooth and shiny.
4. Let the sauce cool slightly before serving over ice cream.
5. Any leftover chocolate sauce can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
