Old-Fashioned Hot Fudge Sauce

Thick, rich old-fashioned hot fudge sauce is delicious poured over ice cream, especially paired with salted caramel sauce, sprinkles and a cherry of course!

*This post contains some affiliate links that as an Amazon Associate pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping keep me in flour and sugar. See my disclosure policy here.

Jump to Recipe

Hot fudge sauce is thick, creamy and doesn’t taste plastic-y at all. It seems like maybe a little bit intimidating because what we’re going to do is make a ganache. But like an easy ganache.

Ganache is a fat in water emulsion. (There are other types of emulsions that are water in fat, like butter). Basically, when you whisk the melted chocolate and cream together, you distribute little droplets of fat (from the cocoa butter in the chocolate and the butterfat from the butter and cream) into the water of the cream.

What is hot fudge made of?

Let’s talk about our ingredients. Basic ganache consists of simply heavy cream and chocolate but we’re going to add a few more things:

• butter-adds more fat to the system to help with the emulsion. Also adds richness
• sugar-for a little added sweetness
• honey-instead of corn syrup for “stretch”
• heavy cream-the magical water plus fat combination that will help our emulsion come together.
• semi-sweet chocolate-since we have added sweetness from the honey and sugar, we want to use semi-sweet. Also, the ratio of cream to chocolate is different when you use white chocolate or milk chocolate because they have more cocoa butter and milk fat in them. You technically can use chocolate chips but they aren’t designed to melt so taking the time to chop your chocolate will result in a smoother, nicer ganache. But if all you have is chocolate chips, by all means, use ’em.

How To Make Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Sauce from scratch:

• Step 1: Chop your chocolate-the smaller the pieces the better. I do this simply with a sharp kitchen knife on a cutting board. Put chopped chocolate in a bowl and set aside.
• Step 2: Add butter, sugar, and honey to a heavy medium sized saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring until just combined.
• Step 3: Allow to cook until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling, about 5-7 minutes.  Do not allow the mixture to turn brown because then you have caramel.  Remove from heat. Add heavy cream and stir to combine.
• Step 4: Pour cream mixture over the chopped chocolate.  Swirl cream over chocolate and allow to sit undisturbed for 3-5 minutes.  Whisk mixture together until completely combined.  Eat over ice cream or store in jar until needed.

Is heavy cream the same as whipping cream?

Heavy cream contains at least 36% milkfat. Whipping cream is only about 30% milkfat. If you are making whipped cream, this doesn’t matter very much, but in this ganache, we are relying on the milkfat to add flavor and help create our emulsion, so try to get heavy cream.

What’s the difference between hot fudge and chocolate sauce?

Hot fudge is usually thicker than chocolate sauce. Chocolate sauce is often made from cocoa powder and water. In contrast, hot fudge is often made with heavy cream which gives it a thicker, creamier mouth feel.

How do I store my ice cream sauce?

I like to store my sauces in a wide mouth glass mason jar. Any clean, food safe, seal-able container will work. If you aren’t going to be using up all your sauce right away, seal it up and keep it in the fridge.

When you’re ready to use, remove from the fridge and take it for a spin in the microwave for a minute to loosen it up. Especially hot fudge sauce. It’s in the name, you want it to be a little warm.

This sauce will last a few weeks in the fridge. Good luck getting it to last that long, it’s sooo good.

Did you make this recipe? Tag me @bakincareofbusiness on Instagram so I can see what you made!

If you loved this post, share it on Facebook or Pinterest!

Happy Baking!

Sources:

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Chocolates and Confections

Handle the Heat