Disclaimer: I am not encouraging emotional eating, nor do I truly believe fudge makes everything better. It might make everything a little more bearable, but not better.
With that said, let’s get down to the nitty gritty… Hot Fudge Sauce! Although, I am not a big dessert eater, I rarely say, “no” to a good hot fudge sauce, which is why I rarely buy it. I would say, “yes” to it daily, and that is not a good thing.
Today, I made my third batch of homemade Hershey’s chocolate sauce (see post about my first attempt here), and I thought it might be fun to experiment by adding some cream and making the syrup into a hot fudge sauce. My youngest son was worried it would mess up the chocolate sauce, and he has a point as my experiments go awry on occasion. So I pulled 1/2 cup of chocolate sauce out and experimented.
The good news? My experiment was successful. The bad news? My experiment was successful. Now I know I can have hot fudge sauce any time I want. Hmm… Want to learn how to endanger your waistline, too? Here’s the recipe I used.
Thick, Rich Hot Fudge Sauce
Hot Fudge Sauce
Adapted from a Food.com recipe found here
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)
dash of salt
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract (real is best)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Mix together sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add water and whisk until the ingredients are well incorporated into the water. Turn heat on medium high. Heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Once the mixture comes to a boil, boil for 1 minute. After one minute, turn off heat. Add vanilla and stir into mixture. Turn stove back on to medium high heat, and whisk in cream a little at a time. Bring to a steady boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat. Serve and enjoy! You may store this in the fridge and heat up as needed.
Here’s my photo step-by-step.
I assembled my ingredients (minus the heavy whipping cream).
I measured the water, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt and put them in a saucepan.
I turned the heat on medium-high and began to whisk the ingredients together.
It took a couple of minutes, but soon enough it was smooth.
As the mixture heated through and as I stirred, the foamy bubbles on top began to disappear.
Shortly thereafter, the mixture began to boil. I turned the heat down to medium, so it wouldn’t boil over. I stirred the boiling mixture for one minute. Then, I turned off the heat.
It’s beginning to look like chocolate syrup, isn’t it? I let the mixture cool for a few minutes.
Next, I added the real vanilla extract and stirred it into the syrup.
After transferring most of the syrup to a jar, I measured the remaining syrup and found it was 1/2 cup.
I turned the heat back on to medium high. When the syrup started the simmer, I gradually added 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, stirring with a whisk until it was incorporated.
Once the mixture was boiling, I started my timer and let it go for about 2 1/2 minutes when the syrup changed texture and got noticeably thicker. At this point, I removed it from the heat.
Note how the syrup coats the spoon. This is different than the Hershey’s syrup recipe which was a bit runny.
See? This is ice cream with knock-off Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
And this is the Hot Fudge Sauce. It coats the ice cream and thickens as it cools. It was so yummy!
