fudge sauce

On a couple of occasions, I've gotten phone calls from members of the family who have wanted to make this quick and addictive fudge sauce, so I thought I'd put it here for easy reference, Dad.

The recipe comes from a beautiful cookbook called Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. I can recommend it heartily, though I've relied more upon fragments -- a sauce here, a mousse there -- than the full, finished recipes (although her crushed pepper brownies are really something). The rather spartan design is compensated for by the strength of the content; who needs color photography when you have recipes as perfected as these?

This fudge sauce is the ideal sort of recipe -- a simple process with a big payout. Maida suggests the use of Dutch-process cocoa, but I think that finding a really good quality cocoa powder of either kind is most important (you see my choice at the top of the post). Let me know how it comes out for you:


1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp. sweet butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder

Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over moderate heat until the butter has melted and the cream just begins to boil. Add the sugars and stir for at least a few minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved and the liquid is smooth. At this point, reduce the heat, then add the salt and the cocoa powder and whisk until it's integrated. If any lumps of cocoa remain, press them against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and serve.