As far as I’m concerned, hot fudge is a perfect food. It’s the thing that takes sundaes, banana splits, ice cream cakes and, heck, any plain ol’ scoop of ice cream from good to outstanding. It’s like the fairy dust of frozen desserts—adding just a couple of spoonfuls can make anything magical, especially if whipped cream, nuts and a cherry are involved.It might surprise you to learn that hot fudge is incredibly easy to make. I grew up thinking of it as a shop-only item, along with caramel sauce and magic shell. Flash forward a few years and I have no fear making any of these classic ice cream toppings—they’re all crazy-easy to put together and much better from scratch!Hot fudge is a ten minute, one-pot operation, and requires just seven ingredients that you probably have on hand. I mean, how can you argue with smooth, sticky, shiny, sweet hot fudge where you know the amount and quality of every ingredient? It’ll take you less time, cash and energy to whip up a batch than it will to get to the store and back. I mean, that’s half the reason I do all this baking and cooking: because I can do it all from the comfort of my own kitchen in my most-mismatched pajamas.Also, because homemade almost always beats store-bought in terms of flavor, quality, and price. That goes double for this hot fudge, which gets its richness from both chopped dark chocolate and cocoa, has less sugar than anything you can purchase, and costs me a whopping $4 for 1 1/3 cups. And it’s delicious. And it doesn’t require putting on real pants or going outside. Yesssss.Most hot fudge recipes I’ve seen are sweetened with sugar in addition to light corn syrup and chocolate, but I couldn’t determine a flavor-related or structural reason that it needed to be there, so I nixed it and nothing terrible happened. In fact, the resulting sauce is as rich and fudgy as any I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot), and I don’t find it to be lacking sweetness at all. If you’d like a sweeter hot fudge, or maybe know something I don’t,* feel free to add a couple of tablespoons of sugar when you whisk together the light corn syrup and cocoa.

*If you do, please tell me. I’d be interested to know.This hot fudge pours and puddles and takes nicely to the sundae treatment. And just in case you think it can’t get much better than that, you should know that it stays good for weeks in the refrigerator and reheats like a dream, so you can have hot fudge sundaes any day of the week all summer long.I recommend you start with today.

Hot Fudge
makes about 1 1/3 cups

1/3 cup light corn syrup (or mild honey or golden syrup)
1/3 cup cocoa powder (preferably dutch process)
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2/3 cup (5 fl oz) evaporated milk (or heavy cream)
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small pot, whisk together light corn syrup, cocoa powder, and salt until combined. Whisk in evaporated milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it has simmered for 2 minutes and has an even color and consistency. Whisk in dark chocolate, followed by butter and vanilla.

Serve over ice cream, or any other desired item. Store leftovers in a microwave-safe container in the refrigerator.

To reheat, microwave in 20 second increments, stirring in between, until pourable. Alternatively, heat in a pot on the stove over low heat, stirring very frequently, until pourable.