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This Easy Hot Fudge recipe has only four ingredients and it’s ready in about five minutes. Velvety smooth and rich, it’s dangerously simple to whip up this homemade chocolate sauce to pour over your favorite ice cream, dip fruit, or just eat with a spoon. Gluten free, and leftovers can be warmed in the microwave the next time you crave a hot fudge sundae.
Originally published June 12, 2018.
I am typically one who celebrates and gets excited about my kids achieving new milestones and learning new things. I am decidedly not in the “stop growing” or “make time stop” or “they grow too fast” camp.
One of the ways we celebrate is with Make Your Own Sundaes!
New Year’s Eve starts with making our own pizza and ends with putting out bowls of toppings to pile on top of our scoops of ice cream.
Do my kids want cake for their birthday? Nope, they beg for sundaes.
Finished another school year? We celebrate with a sundae party!
Well, other than the year my little one graduated preschool and was going to start Kindergarten. That year I might say I drowned my sorrows in ice cream.
But whether we are happy or sad, one thing remains constant – Hot Fudge Sauce.
Thick, rich, velvety, and oh so chocolaty, this homemade hot fudge recipe will satisfy the most intense chocolate cravings. I promise you’ll never go back to the stuff from a jar. Not when you can whip this up in just about five minutes with only four ingredients that you likely already have in your pantry.
Heck, the one thing you might not have, the heavy cream, can be substituted with any number of other things and it’s still just as delicious.
Your sundaes never had it so good. So let’s talk about it.
How to Make Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce
In no time at all, a batch of this homemade hot fudge sauce can be ready for comforting yourself with a big sundae or celebrating with an Ice Cream Cake Sundae Party. Or let it cool a bit and use it as the middle layer of a homemade ice cream cake.
Here is a brief overview so you can see just how easy it is to make. Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full quantities and details.
But don’t skip my PRO TIPS below!
Ingredients
You only need four ingredients to make this easy chocolate sauce. And if you are missing any, then keep reading for my suggestions for substitutions.
- Heavy cream
- Cocoa powder
- Corn syrup
- Chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
Equipment
- Small pot – since this doesn’t make a huge amount of fudge sauce, I like to use a 1 quart saucepan so that is doesn’t boil and burn too quickly.
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Whisk
- Small heatproof spatula
Directions overview – scroll to the recipe card for the full set of instructions
- Whisk the cream, cocoa, and syrup together. Make sure you whisk your heavy cream, cocoa powder, and corn or brown rice syrup together before you put it on the heat so that everything gets evenly incorporated before it starts to bubble.
- Bring it to a boil then reduce heat to low.
- Boil for several minutes till it gets thick, then remove it from the heat. Once it is boiling, you’ll only need to let it boil for 3-5 minutes or so until it starts to thicken. You’ll want the consistency just a bit thinner than how you want your fudge sauce to be at the end because it will thicken when you add the chocolate.
- Stir in the chocolate chips till everything is melty, smooth, and velvety chocolate goodness.
- Serve your hot fudge sauce right away, or store it in the refrigerator in a jar for up to a week. Just warm it up in the microwave or on the stove just till it is pourable.
Ingredient substitutions
Heavy Cream
If you don’t have heavy cream, I have made it using milk or even almondmilk. It doesn’t turn out quite as thick, but it is still smooth and delicious.
You can also swap the heavy cream for Irish cream (or Irish cream coffee creamer) and make Five Minute Bailey’s Fudge Sauce. Just sayin’.
And really, any flavor of coffee creamer will work, whether you want to add more vanilla flavor, a hint of hazelnut, or even pumpkin spice!
Cocoa powder
No real substitution here, but I’m a classic Hershey’s Cocoa Powder kinda gal. Feel free to use your favorite.
Corn syrup
If you prefer not to use corn syrup, brown rice syrup works just fine in this recipe.
Chocolate chips
I usually use chocolate chips because I typically always have a big bag on hand. And it’s quicker to grab a scoop of chips than chop up a bar if I want to make this quick. But either works fine.
Ice cream recipes to make a hot fudge sundae
- No-Churn Caramel Toffee Chip Cheesecake Ice Cream has swirls of creamy caramel and bits of toffee and chocolate in sweet and tangy ice cream.
- Graham Cracker Chocolate Chunk No-Churn Ice Cream is a copycat of Bruster’s Graham Central Station that might be better than the original.
- Vanilla Bean Cheesecake No-Churn Ice Cream is simple and indulgent.
- Funky Monkey Peanut Butter Ripple Chip Banana Ice Cream is the ultimate combination of banana, chocolate, and peanut butter.
- Toasted Marshmallow Brownie Batter Chunk No-Churn Ice Cream is loaded with toasty marshmallow and big chunks of chocolate in ice cream that tastes like you are licking the bowl of brownie batter.
- 3 Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream from Foodie With Family will taste like chocolate covered strawberries when you douse it with this sauce.
- Make it mocha with Espresso Ice Cream from Brown Eyed Baker.
- And sometimes there is nothing better than keeping it simple with 3 Ingredient Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from Rachel Cooks.
Easy Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe
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Easy Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup corn syrup or brown rice syrup
- 2 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped, or about 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk together the heavy cream, cocoa powder, and brown rice or corn syrup in a small pot until smooth.
- Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3-5 minutes, until thickened slightly.
- Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth.
- Cool slightly and use immediately, or store in the refrigerator. It will be thick once chilled, so you’l need to warm it in the microwave or on the stove.
Did you make this?
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Enjoy!
I have been searching for an old recipe and I have found several but not the one I have. My irritation here is that every one of the recipe blogs have way too much “chatter” and too much scrolling to find the recipe. I am commenting here because I am frustrated. What happened to just recipes and a photo or two? Too much scrolling wastes times.
I’m sorry that you feel that scrolling for a couple seconds in order to get your free recipe takes too much of your time. I’m glad that you had the opportunity to air your frustrations with all blogs here on my blog. There are actually a number of reasons for the length of our content, some of which is to provide additional useful information about the recipe and ingredients. In my case, I have started focusing on making sure my recipes are all gluten free, so I am adding a section to explain whether it is gluten free and what would need to be changed to make it gluten free. The other is that this is a blog, not a recipe website, so yes, many bloggers like to use their blogs to express themselves creatively in multiple formats, including writing. If you are interested in neither of those things, you’ll notice on my website, just below the recipe title, I have a button to click that will bring straight to the recipe in a fraction of a second. I hope that saves you time.
I looooooove hot fudge sauce SO much! This looks like a great one!
Thanks, Rebecca! I mean, what’s not to love about thick chocolate sauce on your dessert? 😉