How to Make the Best Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

You’ll never buy store bought hot fudge sauce again. This easy recipe makes rich, smooth, fudgy, homemade hot fudge sauce in minutes, without corn syrup. 

Rich, deeply chocolatey, and made without corn syrup, this homemade hot fudge sauce comes together in about ten minutes and keeps in the refrigerator for weeks. Fair warning: you will find yourself eating it by the spoonful long before it gets near any ice cream.

I have loved hot fudge for as long as I can remember. Not liked. Loved. When I was little and visiting my grandparents, one of my favorite Friday evenings was a trip to the Pig & Whistle. My grandfather would drive us there for hamburgers and ice cream, and I always ordered the brownie sundae with a pitcher of extra hot fudge on the side. I don’t even really remember the brownie. I remember the hot fudge. That thick, fudgy, slightly bitter chocolate sauce that pooled around the ice cream and made everything underneath it better. To this day, if you put a jar of good hot fudge in front of me and handed me a spoon, I would not look around for the ice cream.

This recipe, which I first discovered years ago in the New York Times, is the closest thing I have found to that childhood memory. It is made with a combination of bittersweet chocolate, Dutch-process cocoa, and butter, without any corn syrup, and it is done in the time it takes to set the table

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What Makes This Hot Fudge Sauce Different

Most hot fudge sauce recipes use corn syrup to keep the texture smooth and glossy. This one does not need it. The combination of butter, heavy cream, brown sugar, and a generous amount of cocoa powder does all the work, and the result is a sauce that is thick, rich, and deeply chocolatey without any of the faint sweetness that corn syrup can introduce. It also keeps beautifully in the refrigerator for two to three weeks, which makes it one of those useful things to have on hand through the holidays.

A note on the chocolate: the recipe calls for two ounces of bittersweet chocolate or good-quality dark chocolate chips in the 60 percent range. Use the best chocolate you can find. It makes a difference here because the chocolate is doing real work, not just playing a supporting role.

A note on the cocoa: Dutch-process cocoa is worth seeking out for this sauce. It gives you the deepest, roundest chocolate flavor and the smoothest texture. Valrhona and Droste are both excellent. Sift the cocoa before you add it. Lumps in cocoa powder are stubborn, and smooth sauce is the whole point.

What Goes Into This Hot Fudge Sauce

You need two cups of heavy whipping cream, four tablespoons of unsalted butter, half a cup of light brown sugar, three-quarters of a cup of granulated white sugar, a quarter teaspoon of sea salt, two ounces of bittersweet chocolate chopped (or dark chocolate chips), one and a quarter cups of sifted Dutch-process cocoa, and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. That is everything. It is all probably already in your kitchen.

How to Make This Hot Fudge Sauce

In a medium saucepan, combine the heavy cream, butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Whisk them together, then bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, watching it carefully because you do not want it to boil. Let it simmer for about 45 seconds, then add the chopped chocolate and whisk until it is completely melted and smooth. Pull the pan off the heat and add the sifted cocoa powder, whisking until there are no lumps anywhere. Return the pan to low heat and whisk for about 20 seconds, until the sauce is smooth and glossy and starting to look like the thing you want to eat. Take it off the heat, stir in the vanilla, and that is it. Serve it warm, or let it cool and pour it into a jar for the refrigerator.

To reheat, warm it gently in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring as you go. Do not let it boil. You can also reheat it in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each one.

How to Use Hot Fudge Sauce

Over vanilla ice cream is the obvious starting point, and it is a very good one. But this sauce goes further than the sundae bowl. Spoon it warm over a brownie. Pour it over pound cake. Stir a spoonful into your morning coffee and pretend you meant to do that. It is wonderful over fresh strawberries or raspberries, where the bittersweet chocolate plays against the acidity of the fruit in a way that feels almost fancy. And if you are making an ice cream cake, spread it between the layers while it is still slightly warm and let it set in the freezer. Everyone will ask what you did differently.

It also makes a beautiful gift. Pour it into small mason jars, tie a ribbon around the lid, and tuck it into a basket with a bag of good coffee and a box of brownies. People remember that kind of gift.

Variations

Peppermint: Add a quarter teaspoon of peppermint extract along with the vanilla. This is a wonderful variation for the holidays, and it makes a pretty gift alongside a tin of peppermint bark.

Mocha: Stir a teaspoon of instant espresso powder into the cream mixture before heating. It deepens the chocolate and adds a subtle coffee note that any coffee lover will appreciate.

Peanut butter swirl: Stir a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter into the warm sauce just before serving. It will not fully incorporate, which is exactly the point.

Bourbon or rum: A tablespoon stirred in with the vanilla adds something warm and slightly complex that is very good over vanilla ice cream on a cold night.

If you make this, I would love to know what you put it on first. Are you going straight for the ice cream, or are you the kind of person who finds yourself at the refrigerator the next morning eating it cold by the spoonful? I will not tell anyone either way.

You can also keep up with me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you love Pinecones and Acorns, sharing it with a friend means everything

Planning an ice cream party or dessert bar this summer? Check out my recipes for Salted Dark Chocolate Hot Fudge Sauce No-churn Vanilla Bean Ice Cream or no churn chocolate peanut-butter cup and cookie ice cream.

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Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

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You’ll never buy store bought hot fudge sauce again. This easy recipe makes rich, smooth, fudgy, homemade hot fudge sauce in minutes, without corn syrup. 

• Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients for the Best Hot Fudge Sauce(without corn syrup)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

2 ounce bittersweet chocolate chopped

11/4 cups sifted Dutch Cocoa( I use Valrhona or Droste)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Instructions

DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan combine the heavy cream, butter, white sugar, brown sugar and the salt. Whisk until combined. Then bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat(do not boil). Simmer for 45 seconds.Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted. Remove the pan from the heat and add the sifted unsweetened cocoa powder. Whisk until there are no lumps.

Return the pan to low heat and simmer and whisk until the mixture is smooth and glossy, about 20 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Serve the sauce warm.

Notes

You can change the flavor of the sauce by adding peanut butter, rum, bourbon, or adding extracts to make peppermint or mocha flavored hot fudge sauce.

• Author: Elizabeth
• Prep Time: 5
• Cook Time: 5
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: American