Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Sauce
Old Fashioned hot fudge sauce is a thick, rich, and chocolatey sauce that is a perfect topping for an ice cream sundae!
Made with simple ingredients like butter, cocoa powder, sugar, and heavy cream, this easy and simple sauce is ready in 15 minutes. Thick and chewy when straight out of the fridge and perfectly pourable when warm, this is the hot fudge sauce recipe of your dreams. Add this topping to your favorite bowl of ice cream.
What is the difference between hot fudge and chocolate sauce? Hot fudge sauce is thicker and richer than chocolate sauce. Chocolate sauce is usually made with water and chocolate chips only, but hot fudge sauce gets its richness from cocoa powder and heavy cream, too.
Serve a perfect ice cream sundae bar by pairing your hot fudge sauce with salted caramel sauce and strawberry topping. Or try spooning this hot fudge over ice cream.
Recipe Ingredients
What is hot fudge sauce made of? Good stuff! You only need seven simple ingredients to make this sauce:
- Unsweetened Cocoa – provides the bulk of the chocolate flavor. Use the best quality you can get.
- Brown Sugar – for some sweetness and helps with the texture. The molasses in the brown sugar helps add depth of flavor, too.
- Corn Syrup – this helps our sauce have a beautiful glistening sheen to it and helps to give it a lovely thick texture without crystallization.
- Heavy Cream – This helps provide body and volume to the sauce, and the milk fat in the cream helps provide richness to the taste.
- Semi Sweet Chocolate – You want to use real chocolate that you chop here, not chocolate chips, because they don’t melt as nicely.
- Vanilla Extract – This helps round out the flavors of the sauce
How to make homemade hot fudge sauce
This recipe is simple to make! For the full set of directions, please scroll down to the recipe card below. This is just a general overview on how to make it to help you plan.
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces. It doesn’t have to be fine, just small to help them melt faster.
- In a medium to large saucepan, whisk together the cocoa powder and the sugar.
- Whisk in the water until dissolved.
- Stir in half of the chopped chocolate.
- Place the saucepan on the stovetop on medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and coats the back of your spoon.
- Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the remaining chocolate, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to a glass jar with an airtight seal and placing in the fridge.
Recipe Variations
Hot fudge sauce can easily be adjusted to give different flavors. Try one of these:
- Add in a splash of rum or orange liqueur
- Whisk in some peppermint extract
- Stir in powdered freeze dried strawberries
- Add some chipotle powder for a spicy kick
Recipe FAQ’s
How do I store my ice cream sauce?
Store your hot fudge in a clean jar with an airtight lid. I like to use a mason jar. Store in the fridge for up to four or four weeks, if it lasts that long.
How do you reheat hot fudge sauce?
Transfer the amount of hot fudge sauce that you want to a microwave safe bowl and warm in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds.
What can you use hot fudge sauce on?
Hot fudge is awesome because you can do so much with it! Besides topping your favorite homemade ice cream, try:
- as a cheesecake topping
- add into milkshakes
- as dipping sauce on a dessert board or for fruit
- drizzle over homemade brownies
- layer it in trifle recipes
- stir a spoonful or two into your coffee
- stir into warm milk for a quick hot cocoa
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Old Fashioned Hot Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- 2 ounces semi sweet chocolate chopped
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces. It doesn’t have to be fine, just small to help them melt faster.
- In a medium to large saucepan, whisk together the cocoa powder and the sugar.
- Whisk in the water until dissolved.
- Stir in half of the chopped chocolate and the light corn syrup.
- Place the saucepan on the stovetop on medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and coats the back of your spoon.
- Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the remaining chocolate, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to a glass jar with an airtight seal and placing in the fridge.
