At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to use my time in lockdown to perfect a chocolate sauce for ice cream. In retrospect, looking at the bathroom scale today, I should have used my time to perfect vinaigrette, but hindsight is 20/20. I'll know better next pandemic.
The trouble was, every chocolate sauce recipe I tried was good, hence the problem with the scale. I winnowed down to a recipe I could make without too many ingredients, and nothing hard to find. I was aiming for the chocolate sauce we had throughout my childhood at my grandmother's house--this is pretty darn close.
Recipe notes: you can reduce the amount of unsweetened chocolate to 1 or 1-1/2 ounces if you want the sauce to be less dark. You could probably substitute milk or half and half for the cream. And it could probably be vegan if you sub the dairy for coconut oil and coconut cream. Unrefined sugar would probably work too. I've made this with Baker's, Ghirardelli, and with Sharffen Berger--all good.
Hot Fudge Sauce for Ice Cream
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine chocolate, butter, and cream in a double boiler over simmering water, whisking until melted and combined. Whisk in sugar and salt and stir until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm. Reheat 30 seconds at a time in the microwave, stirring.
