The BEST Homemade Hot Fudge Recipe
To be totally honest, I don’t love ice cream — it’s the hot fudge that I really want. I work around the ice cream just to get to the hot fudge. I’m good with a spoon like that. After making your own homemade hot fudge, a brown squirt bottle of store-bought chocolate syrup will never do. Even some of the gourmet varieties of store-bought hot fudge sauce pale in comparison! They’re either too sweet, too lackluster, or don’t have enough chocolate intensity. And taste notwithstanding, it’s more economical to make your own. And more satisfying and gratifying! Some people will really love this chocolate fudge sauce over ice cream. I happen to really love this with a spoon at midnight. It’s so fudgy, rich, decadent, and stops my chocolate cravings dead in their tracks. The batch makes just one 16-ounce jar, which is probably good. Because there’s only 10 minutes standing between you and this.
Hot Fudge Sauce Ingredients
For this easy hot fudge sauce recipe, you’ll need:
Heavy cream (I used half-and-half) Light corn syrup Dark brown sugar Unsweetened natural cocoa powder Salt Dark or bittersweet chocolate Unsalted butter Vanilla extract
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Hot Fudge Sauce
Making hot fudge sauce from scratch is quick and simple! Here are the basic steps:
Tips for the Best Hot Fudge
For the chocolate, I used three ounces from a Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus Bar and three ounces of Dark Chocolate Pound Plus Bar (54%). I mixed the two because I didn’t want the hot fudge to get too dark and sultry. I like my hot fudge dark and not too sweet, but didn’t want it bitter. I used unsweeetened natural cocoa powder, but Dutch-process may be used. I’d also like to try it with Hershey’s Special Dark, but I can’t find it locally in San Diego anymore. I didn’t sift the cocoa powder, but probably should have because it was pretty lumpy and it took quite a bit of stirring to smooth it. If your cocoa is particularly lumpy, sift. If not, don’t worry about it. The resulting fudge is just sweet enough while being robustly and intensely chocolaty. It’s full-tilt on the chocolate oomph meter and it’s so very satisfying.
Ways to Use Hot Fudge Sauce
Use the chocolate fudge sauce whenever recipes call for it, or simply spoon it over your favorite desserts. Try pairing the fudge sauce with any of the following desserts:
Hot Fudge and Salted Caramel Blondies Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars with Hot Fudge Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups with Ice Cream Easiest Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes Turtle Poke Cake Sea Salt Brownies 1-Minute Microwave Brownie
More Homemade Dessert Sauces:
The Best Salted Caramel Sauce — This homemade salted caramel sauce is creamy, buttery, rich, thick, smooth, and blows away anything you’ll ever buy. Best of all, it’s done in 15 minutes! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter – Even though peanut butter doesn’t need doctoring up, adding a bag of chocolate chips doesn’t hurt. Ready in 5 minutes and so easy! Homemade Peanut Butter – Ready in 5 minutes and you’ll never want storebought again. It’s life-changing! Homemade Cookie Butter — Fans of Biscoff or Trader Joe’s Speculoos Spread, now you can make this knockoff spread at home in minutes! Dark Rum Caramel Sauce – An easy sauce to make with step-by-step photos, rum optional but it sure makes things more fun. Caramel sauce keeps for months in the refrigerator and makes nice gifts
Originally posted April 10, 2013 and reposted July 17, 2020 with updated text.
