Classic Hot Fudge Sauce With Cocoa (in 5 Minutes!)

Classic Hot Fudge Sauce With Cocoa (in 5 Minutes!)

A very forgiving hot fudge sauce recipe without condensed milk or heavy cream— ready in 5 minutes with just 4 pantry staples and a dash of vanilla!

4.86 from 27 votes

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Course: Baking Guides & Hacks

Cuisine: American

Cook Time: 5

Total Time: 5

Servings: .5 cups

Calories: 184.79kcal

Author: Max

Ingredients

1 cup sugar classically white sugar; otherwise brown, allulose, coconut, or raw sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons salted butter + ¼ teaspoon salt for unsalted butter
¼ cup water or milk any milk will work
½ teaspoon vanilla extract optional

Instructions

Put the sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and milk into a large nonstick pot and heat over medium until everything is melted (3-4 minutes), and stir until well-combined.
Let everything heat up, and once the mixture gets to a medium-low boil (tiny bubbles ~2mm big throughout the liquid), set a timer for two minutes and let it boil without stirring it. I repeat: do not stir it. If the bubbles change size or frequency, your heat is too high and should be lowered to keep the bubbles steady. To test the fudge sauce halfway through your timer, dip a spoon in and very quickly take ¼ teaspoon or so of the sauce out and drop it into a glass of room temp water. If the sauce remains liquid in the water rather than holding loosely together, then the butter and sugar aren't cooked enough; at two minutes it will be done or at least done enough
When the timer goes off, turn off the heat, move the pot to a cool burner, and immediately stir in the vanilla; don't mix it for more than 15-20 seconds. Your homemade fudge sauce is now done and can be immediately poured over ice cream, cake, or brownies, and leftovers can be stored in the fridge (but it will harden quite a bit; just heat it for 20 seconds in the microwave).

Notes

Salted or Unsalted Butter: if you prefer to add salt to your chocolate fudge sauce, made sure you've used unsalted butter, and only use super finely-ground salt. I appreciate the shortcut of just using salted butter, though, because the standard amount added is reasonable for this hot fudge sauce recipe.

Use Quality Cocoa: most of the flavor of this homemade fudge sauce comes from the cocoa powder, so it's important to use a high quality cocoa powder. If not, your hot fudge will end up flatter-tasting rather than complex. I like this one from Guittard.

Storage & Expiration: this homemade fudge sauce can last up to 2 weeks in the back of the fridge, or up to 6 months in the freezer. If kept longer in the freezer it may still be good, but the texture could go off.

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