The Best Hot Fudge Sauce in the World (2024)

Watch the web story for my Absolute Best Hot Fudge Sauce, you guys!

The Best Hot Fudge Sauce, At a Glance

What makes this the best?

This ice cream sauce is not the best because it has the fewest ingredients. No, that prize goes to good old ganache which makes a fine ice cream topping, clocking in at 2 or maybe 3 ingredients.

If you’re looking for good, old-fashioned hot fudge sauce, though, you need look no further.

Here are the things that make this fudge sauce the best:

• It gets thick and a bit chewy when cold.
• You have to heat up in order to pour it.
• It has a deep, rich flavor that is exactly what is needed to set off a perfect vanilla ice cream. Or coffee ice cream.
• There is enough salt in it to round out the flavors, counteractany bitterness that might be present if you use a really dark chocolate, and to make the sauce sparkle on your tongue.
• You can vary the flavor based on your preferences.

It is truly an old-fashioned fudge sauce with you’re going to want to make again and again.

Ingredients and Substitutions

NOTE: If you don’t need all the step-by-step instructions, feel free to jump straight to the recipe.

The ingredient list is actually relatively long, but the process is pretty straightforward. Here’s what you’ll need:

• butter: the fat helps to carry the flavor and provide body. If you don’t have unsalted butter, use salted, but you may have to dial back amount of additional salt you use
• sugar: provides the sweetness and helps to give the sauce the traditional “chewy” texture of old time soda fountain hot fudge sauce. You can substitute light brown sugar, 1:1, if you would rather
• corn syrup: light or dark. Helps to prevent crystallization and provides more of the chewy texture we’re going for
• heavy cream: provides body and volume as well as additional milk fat. The dairy solids in the cream will brown as you cook the base, adding to flavor complexity
• salt: enhances the flavor and counteracts any bitterness from the cocoa powder
• milk: provides more volume without adding much additional fat. Also adds more dairy solids that will brown as they cook
• cocoa powder: provides the chocolate flavor. Use the best quality you can get, although honestly any will do. I make mine with Hershey’s (or Ghirardelli when I can find it) and it’s fantastic, either way. DO NOT use cacao powder which is not roasted or heated during processing. It is too delicate to provide the punch of chocolate flavor we are looking for
• water (or coffee): gives you something to make the cocoa powder paste with. If you use coffee, it will help to deepen the chocolate flavor just a touch
• light rum: adds enough alcohol to bring out alcohol-soluble flavors without being a prominent flavor itself. You can certainly sub in your favorite liquor or liqueur here, depending on what flavor you’re going for. You can also leave the alcohol out entirely if alcohol is an issue for you. Coffee makes an excellent substitution here, and you will not be able to taste it in the final sauce
• vanilla: chocolate’s complement. Must have! You don’t have to use the top quality stuff, but adding vanilla helps to round out the flavors
• semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate: adds additional chocolate flavor plus some cocoa butter for body

How to Make Hot Fudge

There are two basic components to this sauce:

1. dairy and sugar
2. chocolate and flavorings

The goal is to boil the dairy to concentrate the flavors and reduce the liquid and then pour that over the chocolate and whisk to combine.

Here’s a closer look at that procedure.

You have 2 “mixtures” to deal with.

For the dairy portion, mix heavy cream, milk, sugar, corn syrup, and salt together in a medium saucepan.

Bring it to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture caramelizes but isn’t too, too thick.

The magic temperature, if you want to use your instant read thermometer is 224-225F. This is technically the thread stage, and if this was the only component of the sauce, it would stay runny in the fridge.

But since the other part of the sauce contains a lot of chocolate, it sets up very thick, almost like peanut butter.

And that’s what gives you that chew when the warmed up sauce hits cold ice cream. Magic!

All the rest of the ingredients go into a large bowl or pitcher that holds at least 1 quart/1 liter.

1. Chocolate, cocoa powder, rum (if using), vanilla, and water go into the bowl.
2. Once the dairy is beautifully caramelized, pour it over the chocolate.
3. Whisk until smooth.
4. For the smoothest texture, strain through a fine-mesh strainer. This is an optional step, but since it doesn’t take much time, I usually strain mine.

Fudge Sauce Variations

This sauce can be flavored in many ways. Here are some ideas to try:

• Add a bit of orange zest and/or cinnamon to the boil
• Switch out the rum for orange liqueur.
• Use your favorite alcohol–a liquor or liqueur.
• Add some peppermint extract.
• Whisk in powdered freeze-dried raspberries or other freeze-dried fruits.
• Add some heat in the form of chipotle pepper or smoked hot paprika

Play with this sauce and make it your own.

When you want to relive your visits to the soda fountain where the fudge sauce was thick and rich and tasted of fudge and not “brown,” then please makeit according to the original recipe which calls forlight rum and vanilla.

Aside from a scale, which I hope you already own, you’ll also need a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan, a nice large bowl for mixing up the cocoa paste, and a fine mesh strainer.

Keep your hot fudge sauce in 8 oz Ball Jars or use fancy Weck canning jars if you’re going to give some as gifts.

NOTE: Since this is dairy-based, it is not recommended to can this. I recommend the above canning jars are just for storing the sauce, not canning it.

Hot Fudge Sauce Q & A

Do I have to caramelize the dairy mixture?

While it’s optional, Tangela shares this comment:

Caramelizing the sugar/dairy does a couple of things:

• It evaporates out some of the water, concentrating the flavor and allowing for a thicker sauce and that old-fashioned chewy texture that is so incredibly addictive.
• The caramelized sugar and milk solids lend a deep, complex base flavor that you would not get if you don’t take this step.

If you want to use your instant-read thermometer to check doneness rather than just going by color, shoot for 224F/107C.

Here’s another comment in support of taking the time to caramelize the dairy in your hot fudge sauce so it really will be the best:

Pro Tip

Quicker Options

If you don’t have time to boil a big old pot of ingredients on the stove for a long time, you can just make some ganache.

I also recommend trying my Quick Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe which takes a couple of shortcuts to get to long-cooked flavor in way less time.

And if you want to go really old school, make some chocolate syrup. I swear it is So Good either on ice cream or in chocolate milk.

Serving Suggestions

Aside from pouring it over ice cream, you can also use the sauce to make chocolate milk or hot chocolate. Just stir enough into hot or cold milk until you like the chocolate-ness level and enjoy.

Here are some other ideas:

• Top a cheesecake with it
• Serve it with cake or drizzle it over an iced cake to get that “drip” effect
• Use it as the fudge layer in my chocolate cheesecake pie (Please do this!)
• Use it to layer with soft ice cream before freezing to make a swirled ice cream
• Top an ice cream mud pie like my friend Laura did
• Make chocolate pound cake or some fudgy brownies, top with a scoop of ice cream, and then drench the whole shebang with fudge sauce before topping with some stabilized whipped cream
• Please pour it over this French vanilla ice cream. I implore you!
• Even though you might want to eat it straight from a spoon, consider making some chocolate pudding instead!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

A Note About Measurements

NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids. Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

It will help me and other readers so much if you take a moment to rate and leave a review for this recipe.

You can use the stars to rate 1-5 (5 is best), and leave a review in the comments. It helps me make adjustments if any are needed, and comments help others decide whether the recipe is worth making.

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Thank you so much for taking the time!

Hi, y’all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.

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Enjoy the best hot fudge sauce in the world, and have a lovely day.

See my best old-fashioned fudge sauce web story here.