Hot Fudge Sauce

For Christmas the last few years I've been making food gift baskets for some extended family rather than buying gifts. I haven't actually done the math to see if this is cost effective or not but I like doing it. This year's baskets included a jar of hot fudge or butterscotch sauce.

Unfortunately I don't remember where I got this recipe from. But I've seen some other hot fudge recipes that say you need to cook the sauce for up to an hour to get it the right consistency. Not true! This sauce comes together in about 5-10 minutes once on the stove. Super easy and sooo good.

Another good thing about this recipe is that it can be adjusted depending on how "healthy" you want it to be. You can use skim milk and eliminate the unsweetened chocolate or you can use a dark higher fat cocoa and whole milk for a really dark rich sauce.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a double boiler over low heat and whisk to combine

2. Add milk, butter, and chocolate.

3. Stir constantly until butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has dissolved. Do not let the mixture boil.

4. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat as needed. The sauce will thicken when cool.