This easy Chocolate Dipping Sauce recipe has been perfected through many trials & errors with various types of chocolate, fat ratios, and even thickness of chocolate bits. After years, I've finally got this simple chocolate dip recipe down - all you need is a spoonful of cream and some of your favorite chocolate!
For other simple chocolate sauce recipes, try my hot fudge sauce or gianduja spread.
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⭐ Why This Recipe is Great
Quality Chocolate: The problem with using low-quality chocolate of any form, however, is that this sauce is destined to be the star of any dish. You can even use it as a chocolate glaze on your favorite cake.
And whatever you choose to dredge through this chocolate dipping sauce will taste mostly like the chocolate, so opt for brands like Guittard, Beyond Good, or Valrhona. If you're not sure where to buy high quality chocolate, I've written a post on where to buy craft chocolate online.
What to Dip: Don't forget to also use high quality foods for dipping! I get my fruits from the organic section of our local supermarket, and I pick up the sweet treats from our local ice cream dealer. Here are some ideas of great foods to dip into chocolate sauce:
- strawberries
- saltines
- rice crispy treats
- cherries on the stem
- gummy bears
- graham crackers
🍫 Ingredients
Chocolate: you can use any type, percentage, and shape of chocolate to make this sauce; it works with any and all of them.
Heavy Cream: this is the ingredient which helps to smooth out the sauce, making it easier for dipping, spreading, and drizzling.
See recipe card for exact measurements and quantities.
📝 How to Make Dipping Chocolate Sauce: Step-by-Step
Step 1. Put a small bowl and spoon onto the counter, along with a sharp knife and cutting board. Measure off or weigh how much of your chocolate bar you need, and put that onto the board (image 1). Chop the chocolate across, so that it splinters like shown. Pieces should measure no more than 5mm across and be quite thin (image 2).
Top Tip
The key to this chocolate sauce dip recipe is in sourcing really good chocolate, ideally a craft chocolate with no more than 3 ingredients. If you can handle soy, a chocolate which lists "soy lecithin" on the ingredients list isn't necessarily bad or mass market. Just keep in mind that if you use chocolate chips, you need to chop them up very fine as their size doesn't melt well.
Step 2. Next, measure out ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) of cream or milk into the ice cream bowl (image 3) and heat the cream in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, depending on the power of your microwave. Once the cream is heated, immediately pull it out of the microwave and add in the chopped chocolate in the thin layer (image 4).
Step 3. Let the ingredients sit for two minutes (image 5). This time allows the chocolate to slowly melt rather than being burned or mixed together while at very different temperatures. If it doesn't stand, the fat and the solids will begin to separate, and it will look like curdling milk.
Step 4. After two minutes, stir vigorously with your spoon to combine all of the liquids and the solids. Within 10 seconds, your sauce should start to look like the shiny liquid in the bowl (image 6).
If you like the flavor contrast it brings, consider adding a dash of salt to your sauce before mixing, and definitely before dipping. The sauce also makes a great base for a homemade hot chocolate, though be careful of any splashes, as getting out chocolate stains is easier said than done.
👨🏻🍳 Expert Notes & Tips
Overcooking Dairy: Keep an eye on the cream so that it doesn't start cooking in there. If it's still not warm enough, heat it in 5-second intervals until it's quite hot, but not burning.
Type of Chocolate: Use a milk chocolate if you prefer a sweeter sauce, or if it pairs better with the flavor of the ice cream or items you'll be using it on (or even if that's just all you have laying around.
You can use a white or ruby chocolate in the recipe, but a white chocolate would likely be lost against the flavor of the ice cream, and ruby chocolate would likely clash with any ice cream flavors.
Sauce That Doesn't Harden: To make an even softer and creamier chocolate sauce, make sure you use a tablespoon of heavy cream, and make it a heavy dash of salt (if you choose to add salt).
🥣 What to Do With Chocolate Dipping Sauce
- put it on ice cream, as shown here
- slather leftover sauce between layers in a cake
- pour it over brownies for a rich sauce
- mix it into a no-bake energy bar recipe, to help bind the dough
- drizzle it over pancakes for a sweet treat on a special occasion
- thin it out to use in a chocolate fountain for a party
🙋🏻♂️ Frequently Asked Questions
This chocolate dipping sauce will last 1-2 days at room temp, and up to 2 weeks in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Simply replace the milk or cream in the chocolate sauce with non-dairy milk or cream, or use 4 teaspoons of coconut oil in place of milk or cream.
Yes. But if you use chocolate chips instead of a chocolate bar, measure the chocolate by weight rather than volume, especially if using melted chocolate chips.
A chocolate dipping sauce that hardens has been made with a oil that's solid at room temperature. So replace the dairy in the recipe with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil per ounce of chocolate used.
To make a chocolate dipping sauce that doesn't harden, you need to use an oil that's liquid at room temperature, like the milk or cream in this recipe.
Have you tried this recipe?
If you like the recipe, please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card, or even a comment! I love to hear how your recipes turned out, and your feedback can help other readers! Also join us on Instagram, Facebook & Pinterest.
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Dipping Sauce Recipe (2 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup heavy cream or milk less fat makes a thicker sauce
- 4 oz. chocolate dark or milk chocolate, about 110g
Instructions
- Measure how much chocolate you need. Whether you're using a chocolate bar or chocolate chip, chop the chocolate across as best you can, so that it splinters into very small pieces. Don't add it to your bowl yet.
- Measure out your milk or cream into the small bowl, and heat it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Once heated, immediately add in the chopped chocolate in a thin layer.
- Let the ingredients sit for two minutes, to allow the chocolate to slowly melt. If it doesn't sit like this for a couple minutes, the fat and the solids will begin to separate, and it will look like curdling milk.
- After two minutes, stir vigorously with your spoon to combine all of the liquids and the solids. Within 10 seconds, your sauce should start to look like a shiny liquid, now all ready for dipping!
Acil
Hi Dame, thanks for sharing your recipe, but may I know how much milk that you used in this recipe?
Max
Yes! Thank you for your comment; it's a quarter cup of either cream OR milk, and if you use milk you've have a thicker sauce, and if you use cream or oil you'll have a thinner sauce (and a sauce made with coconut oil or cocoa butter rather than dairy will harden at room temperature, like for making chocolate covered fruits).
PZ
Yikes I may need some help troubleshooting. Looking for a new recipe for a sauce that doesn't not harden at room temp, for dipping mini cream puffs into. I usually just put the dip in a chocolate warmer, but I would prefer not to this year. Pretty sure I did as directed (like someone else, my liquid didnt quite melt everything, so I put the bowl over hot water and whisked until fully melted), but it looks like the liquid is separating from the mixture. I used a combo of milk and heavy cream. Any chance you can suggest some troubleshooting?
Max
PZ,
If you're looking to dip mini cream puffs in but don't want it to harden, I assume you're looking for more of a fondue dipping sauce, which means that you'll want to use all heavy cream rather than cream and milk (as noted in the recipe card, using milk makes for a more thick sauce, which is not what you want). I also assume that your liquid separating from the mixture is as shown in the picture in the blog post, meaning that it's the fat from the chocolate and the cream that's separating from the solids. This means that the cream was either too hot when you added the chocolate, or that the mixture didn't sit for long enough before the two were blended; either way, the chocolate's emulsion is broken.
You did the right thing to try to fix it, though. Ironically the only way to fix a seized chocolate sauce is to put it in a bowl over heat. However THEN you need to add a teaspoon of boiling water at a time to the mixture (you can microwave the water to boil it), whisking well for up to a minute before adding another teaspoon, if the mixture still hasn't come back together). Hopefully this gives you enough confidence to try the recipe again without worry that it may break, though I'm sorry for the frustration that chocolate can bring!
-Max
Joshua
Was looking for an easy dipping sauce for strawberries and this couldn't have been simpler!
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Sandra
My kinds love it for fruit dipping!
Karen
This recipe is perfection. I measured everything exactly as specified and it came out great. I didn't get the milk hot enough, I think, so I boiled a little water and sat the bowl of chocolate and milk in it for a few added minutes. Did the trick!
Jesse Adcock
Thanks for sharing your blog with all of us. This is an informative recipe.
Max
I'm glad you find it helpful!