Great Hot Fudge Sauce
For a smooth, rich, silky sauce that turns chewy on ice cream, use two types of chocolate and be careful about when you add them to the sauce.
The challenge: Chocolate sauces may be thin or viscous, sweet or bittersweet. Many are quite simple, made only from chocolate, a liquid, and a couple of other components. But as the queen of chocolate sauces, hot fudge should be lush and complex: intensely chocolate, smooth and satiny, and, because it is paired with ice cream and ice cream is fairly sweet, the sauce should be less so. This is a fair description of what we were looking for in our "ideal" hot fudge sauce.

The solution: To produce the intensely chocolate flavor we were after, we used not one but two types of chocolate: Dutch process cocoa (which seems to have a deeper flavor and richer color than natural process cocoa) and semisweet chocolate. We tried unsweetened chocolate, but this produced a dulled chocolate flavor, even when paired with the Dutch process cocoa.
Graininess had been a problem in a number of our trial recipes. Adding some water and corn syrup improved the consistency of the sauce, but it was still sometimes grainy. We thought the reason might be that the sugar wasn't completely dissolving. To remedy this, we decided to melt the chocolate separately and add it to the other ingredients only after the sugar had dissolved. Separating out the chocolate also served to prevent the chocolate from being "overcooked." With all the ingredients combined in one pot, the chocolate would melt before the sugar had dissolved; it was thus exposed to heat for longer than necessary. This separation of ingredients solved the problem of graininess, but we still detected a "cooked" chocolate flavor that we didn't like. We had assumed that cocoa was not as sensitive to heat as chocolate, but perhaps we had been wrong. When we dissolved the cocoa powder in the melted chocolate and then added both to the other pot--which then needed no more heat because the sugar would be dissolved--the "cooked" flavor was gone for good.

A caveat: Once made, this sauce will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 10 days. Be sure to serve warm, and, when reheating, reheat only the amount of sauce you intend to use; repeated heating and chilling can make the sauce grainy.

HOT FUDGE SAUCE

Makes 2 cups

If you wish, melt the chocolate in the microwave at 50 percent power for three minutes, whisking the cocoa powder into the choclolate once it is melted.

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup sifted Dutch process cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup heavy cream
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1. Melt chocolate in small heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water until smooth, stirring once or twice. Turn off heat and whisk in cocoa until dissolved; set aside.

2. Warm sugar, corn syrup, cream, salt, and 1/3 cup water in medium, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan over low heat without stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high; simmer mixture, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes.

3. Turn off heat and whisk in vanilla and butter. Cool mixture slightly, about 2 minutes; whisk in melted chocolate. Serve warm. (Can be refrigerated in an airtight container at least 10 days before serving; reheat over simmering water or in microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stirring several times, until sauce is shiny and completely smooth.)

July, 1997
Original article and recipes by Stephanie D. Zonis