Espresso Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe: Delicious and ready in 10 minutes! (2024)

FAQs

Why is my homemade hot fudge sauce grainy? ›

Be sure to serve warm, and, when reheating, reheat only the amount of sauce you intend to use; repeated heating and chilling can make the sauce grainy.

Corn syrup is really the secret ingredient to making the best hot fudge, because without it, the chocolate and butter would harden up as the sauce cools. If you prefer not to use corn syrup, try golden syrup, which is made from cane sugar and works just as well.

Hot fudge is made by boiling together cream, sugar, chocolate, and sometimes butter—the traditional ingredients for fudge—into what is essentially just an undercooked, unset version of the confection. It differs from plain old chocolate sauce by virtue of being gooier and more viscous.

Heat Ingredients: Combine sugar, light corn syrup, heavy cream, salt and water to a saucepan and stir well. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring well. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Add Chocolate Mixture: Pour the chocolate mixture into the syrup and stir until smooth.

Once a seed crystal forms, it grows bigger and bigger as the fudge cools. A lot of big crystals in fudge makes it grainy. By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals. Stirring would help sucrose molecules "find" one another and start forming crystals.

The more liquid you incorporate—whether it's brine, vinegar, or soy sauce—the thinner your sauce will be. For a smoother texture, prolonged blending is your best bet. If you want your sauce even smoother, then straining that blended sauce is an even better option.

You have to control two temperatures to make successful fudge: the cooking temperature AND the temperature at which the mixture cools before stirring to make it crystallize. Confectionery experiments have shown that the ideal cooking temperature for fudge is around 114 to 115 °C (237 to 239 °F).

Why has my Fudge not set? The main reason is that your Fudge has not reached the optimum temperature. If your mixture only reaches 110 or 112 degrees Celsius it will always be soft.

Fudge is best stored at room temperature for 2 to 3 weeks wrapped up in its original wax paper. NEVER REFRIGERATE your fudge as this will draw out the moisture and leave you with dry, crumbly fudge.

Grainy Fudge

If the melting sugar splashes onto the sides of the pan, it turns back into crystals and causes the fudge to seize up. To avoid this issue, swirl the pan instead of stirring it with a spoon. You can use a wet pastry brush to wipe down any sugar that sticks to the sides of the pot.

How do you thicken hot fudge? ›

Tips & Tricks. For a thicker chocolate sauce, truer to the consistency of hot fudge, use heavy cream, whole milk, or half and half in place of water.

In fact, hot fudge sauce is just a fudge that never sets! Cream or milk, sugar, and butter are slowly boiled down until slightly thickened and light caramel-colored. This boiling-down process not only gives the sauce it's great gooey texture, but also contributes that special “fudgey” taste to the chocolate.

The cause of grainy hot fudge sauce is most likely due to overheating the sauce or not heating the mixture to the right temperature. When cooked too low, it can cause the sugar not to dissolve completely and then cool and form granules in the sauce.

View Ingredients and Allergens

Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, glucose syrup), Water, Milk ingredients, Hydrogenated palm kernel oil or hydrogenated coconut oil, Cocoa, Salt, Disodium phosphate, Potassium sorbate, Natural flavour (plant source), Polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, Soy lecithin.

Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Cocoa Processed With Alkali And Cocoa, Contains 2% Or Less Of: Fully Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Mono And Diglycerides, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Vanillin (artificial Flavor).

A squirt of lemon comes to the rescue of ruined sauces in a pinch. All you have to do is cool the broken sauce, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, and whisk vigorously.

Beating the mixture encourages the formation of small sugar crystals, which leads to the crumbly texture. The crystals may not be noticeable in themselves but the fudge mixture will thicken and turn from shiny to matte in appearance.

However, once the mixture comes to a boil, it's time to put the spoon down. If you continue stirring once the mixture is simmering, you are encouraging the development of sugar crystals. While crystallization is the goal if you're making hard candy, crunchy sugar bits can quickly ruin a fudge's silky smooth texture.