This is my favorite and it's as good as the cocoa you use. I prefer this to the melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk recipes.

https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/wprm_print/22065

This is my favorite cocoa at the moment

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BLTNL4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_FN4VM8421XE7TMKFHG88?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Cacao Barry Extra Brute

I get the nostalgia of the gritty with sugar, but that's a technical flaw that comes from sugar clinging the edge and not getting incorporated and then kind of drying and recrystalizing. I'd guess it would be hard to replicate. The only thing I know is that crystals will follow crystals, so maybe after you make your sauce, you could stir in a few crystals of sugar and see if you can get the syrup to partially crystalize.

It's been a really long time since I made it, so I don't have a recipe for you, but really good hot fudge sauce starts with really good cocoa powder. And, yes, it's expensive, but less so if you buy it by the bulk package rather than the little containers in the store. I use Valrhona. It's practically walking fudge in its cocoa powder form. The rest is pretty similar all around, halfway between fudge and ganache in terms of butter and cream content.

You can replace the corn syrup in any recipe with invert sugar, which you can make yourself with good cane sugar. That might help you get the crystalization you want as well.

Mine is probably similar to what you made:

6 oz. Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup milk (more if needed)
2 tbsp sugar

Combine all ingredients in the top of a double boiler and stir over simmering water until chocolate has melted and combined.

I often make half a recipe:
3 oz. Bittersweet chocolate
1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp milk (or cream)
1 tbsp sugar

I've also made it with cream instead of milk.

One thing I was thinking about, when I was hunting all over the house for the right chocolate last night, was that I really need to find out the differences between dark chocolate, semi-sweet, and bittersweet. In terms of how much sugar they contain.

I saved about 6 recipes, but they called for different kinds. I had put unsweetened chocolate on the grocery list. But my husband couldn't find it, and came home with ordinary semi-sweet chocolate chips. I figured those would not be good enough, so I tasted all the dark chocolate, and used the best one.

In general, chocolate chips are not as good as regular chocolate because they have soy lecithin added to them, and this makes the flavor a bit off - at least enough so that they are not a good substitute for block chocolate when the chocolate is the main ingredient.

You mainly just have to adjust the sugar, depending on whether you use unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet, or semi-sweet. I pretty much never cook with semi-sweet, since it is easy to add sugar as needed. If you used regular milk chocolate for chocolate sauce, you would not need to add any sugar.

It's easy to order chocolate on line, if you are willing to wait for delivery, but I buy it at Trader Joe's, where it is the least expensive - and always available. Amazon is now selling Trader Joe's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate, but it is cheaper if you buy it in the store. This is the chocolate that I use in cooking and for chocolate sauce.

i had a recipe much like you describe but I seem to have lost it. It came from my sister in law who died 3 years ago and who knows what happened to her recipe file. In my file it was called Lois' Lushious chocolate sauce. had to be warm or it was almost solid.

This is absolutely fabulous! You can google and see how available it is- definitely mail order, Sur La Table, Whole Foods, I think. Amazon for sure. Their caramel sauce is also to die for.

eta: I was looking at reviews on Amazon and the one 1* review complained about the thickness. It is very thick, esp after being in the refer, but I always just heat it a bit - but it's still much thicker than, say, Hershey's syrup.

Dark Chocolate Sauce - Fran's Chocolates

frans.com › sauce-hot-chocolate › sauce-dark-chocolate

Ingredients: Cream* (milk), cane sugar*, tapioca syrup*, Dutch cocoa powder* (cocoa powder, potassium carbonate), dark chocolate* (cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin), salt. *Organic.

I found a link to where it's available in and around Chicago: http://notes.frans.com/posts/where-to-buy-frans-chocolates/

You're so right! In the back of my mind no hot fudge can be as delicious as Peacocks and now I know someone else thinks so too. I grew up going to the Peacocks in Wilmette on Skokie Blvd.

Sorry but I can't help with your search but will be reading the responses.

this is a good thread to try as well

OMG chocolate

I LOVE Frans chocolates, so why wouldn't I also love their choclate sauce. Thanks for the link, Olychick.

I made the recipe for such from Sophia Loren and I was ...... disappointed..... again. Ah well, I think I agree with you, linnea. I'm going to try buying some.

Baily's Irish cream Haute fudge is a real treat. I haven't had any for a few years but this thread reminded me of how good it is. So I just ordered 2 jars ;-)

Outside a brutal winter storm was blowing off the Great Lakes. Inside three little ones demanding cocoa. Not a drop of chocolate sauce in the house, just the makings. Time to experiment. This result is what happens when you add an extra cup of whole milk to the basic Hershey's Rich Cocoa Fudge recipe.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE

3 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups whole milk

2 tbls. butter (optional)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cocoa, salt and milk in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil slowly, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla. Buzz with hand blender carefully to smooth boiling hot mixture. Pour in a heat proof 1 quart container while still boiling hot and cover with lid. Refrigerate when cool.

Notes: Lay a wooden spoon across top of pan to keep mixture from boiling over. Feel free to add 2 teaspoons of Bailey's Irish Cream for extra flavor. Also, for those looking for that 'grains of sugar' texture just use a whisk to quickly combine the boiling sauce together but not smooth it out completely.

^Agree with above regarding Fran's chocolate sauce...and their other dessert sauces.

Lars, it's good to know the Trader Joe's dark chocolate is that good. That's my husband's default chocolate, but I never taste his, and there was none in the house when I wanted to make up the sauce, or I would have tasted it to compare with the others. For eating plain I like milk chocolate.

I tasted what I made last night, cold from the refrigerator. It's basically fudge now. I don't know what is the dividing line between something that stays soft when cold, but heats nicely ( as I generally do when having it with ice cream), or something that will stay solid. I wonder if I stirred it too much.

I remember as a kid making fudge, my Mom would insist I beat it for a long time. When I didn't, just pretended I had, we had a pan full of chocolate sauce. But that was just made with ordinary cocoa, not good chocolate.

I've made this recipe many times. It's from Epicurious and America's Test Kitchen (it's the very same recipe):

Chocolate Fudge Sauce

1/3 C cocoa, measured, then sifted, set aside

3 oz chopped unsweetened chocolate, set aside (don't make chunks out of your chocolate because they take too long to melt)

4 T unsalted butter, cut into little cubes, set aside (put it in the fridge until needed)

1 tsp vanilla, set aside

In sauce pan:

2/3 C whole milk

1 1/4 C granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Put the sauce pan over medium heat and whisk while heating--this will take 3 to 5 minutes, and then it will come to an active boil.

Add 1/3 C of cocoa and whisk it in with the milk, sugar and salt.

Remove the sauce pan from the heat.

Add 3 oz chopped unsweetened chocolate that you set aside, and whisk it in the milk, sugar, salt and cocoa in the saucepan... it'll melt right in!

Let it sit for 3 minutes.

Whisk.

Add 4 T unsalted butter & whisk in the butter.

Add 1 tsp vanilla and whisk.

Taste.

Taste again.

Put a little bit of peanut butter on a spoon and dip the spoon into chocolate. Taste.

Try it again, just to be sure it tastes ok.

Store in fridge for up to 1 month.

This looks good. Thanks! Some of my favorite recipes are from Epicurious.

I made the Epicurious one about a month ago and I liked the taste and the simplicity. It was SO fast to make, it took less time than me reading the labels on the hot fudge sauces at the grocery store.

But it wasn't thick enough for my tastes. Would it be thicker if I substituted whipping cream for the milk? OR just reduced the volume of the liquid? Thanks.

I should probably post a new thread, but I'll leave this here, so the original respondents can chime in.

here's one my grandmother made on saturday nights when i was young

Ingredients

• ⅓ c. cocoa powder
• 1 c. sugar
• ¾ c. evaporated milk
• ¼ c. butter
• ½ tsp. vanilla

bring first three ingredients to boil, add the butter and lastly the vanilla. this recipe is good for doubling and keeps in the fridge. The evap is the key, and good choolate [not chips]

What kind of cocoa powder is good? I should have some better stuff anyway, even though my chief use for it is dusting tiramisu.

dutch process s a personal fave