Rich and silky hot fudge sauce made easily on your stovetop, using real, everyday ingredients! This simple recipe is perfect drizzled all over your favorite desserts, given away as gifts, or eaten by the spoonful!
This is one of my Pantry/Kitchen Basics recipes I know you’ll want to keep on hand! These recipes are great homemade alternatives to store-bought items.
With the weather warming up, it’s got me thinking about warm weather desserts… which leads me right to ice cream!
I’m all about a great ice cream sundae, with at least one cherry on top, and don’t forget the hot fudge sauce.
Have you ever made your own fudge sauce? It’s much easier than you may think, and I feel like it tastes so much better!
Plus, you know exactly what’s in it, and can customize it to your tastes.
What do I need to make this recipe?
- Butter – for this recipe you can use either salted or unsalted. I prefer unsalted so that I can control the salt level.
- Granulated sugar – I prefer the pure flavor of granulated sugar, but if you would like a bit of a molasses-y flavor, try using brown sugar instead.
- Heavy cream – this may be labeled heavy whipping cream, but if you don’t have any, whole milk could be used instead.
- Light corn syrup – this may seem odd, but not only does the corn syrup add sweetness, it prevents the sauce from getting hard and crystalized.
- Salt – just a pinch is all you need to balance the other flavors.
- Chocolate chips – semi-sweet is the variety I prefer, but if you like it sweeter, you could use milk chocolate, and if you like it more bitter, you could use dark chocolate.
- Vanilla extract – vanilla and chocolate are just perfect together, each one balancing the other.
How to make hot fudge sauce?
This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.
- Melt. In a saucepan, add butter, sugar, cream, corn syrup and salt. Heat until melted and the mixture has come to a low boil.
- Add chocolate. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips.
- Let sit. Add vanilla and stir until the chocolate is melted.
- Serve or store.
Helpful Tip!
As with most recipes that use minimal ingredients, the quality of those ingredients plays a big role in how the final product turns out. I highly recommend using quality butter, chocolate chips, and vanilla. I like Land o Lakes butter, Guittard or Ghirardelli chocolate chips, and Nielsen Massey vanilla.
Variations of this recipe
- Sugar – in place of granulated sugar, you could try using a light brown sugar. This will add a little more of a molasses-y flavor.
- Heavy cream – if you’d prefer not to use heavy whipping cream, you could try using half and half or whole milk. I haven’t tested this recipe with lower fat milks or non-dairy milks.
- Chocolate – please feel free to use any variety of chocolate chips that you enjoy (semi-sweet, milk, dark, etc).
- Vanilla – if you’d like more vanilla flavor, you can use up to 2 tsp in this recipe.
- Other flavorings – to change the flavor, try using different extracts, such as almond, hazelnut, orange, mint, etc.
FAQ’s
The light corn syrup will help prevent any sugar crystallization, and help you achieve a super glossy and smooth sauce. If the idea gives you pause, most likely because of high fructose corn syrup, the two aren’t nearly as similar as the name implies.
They’re similar, but not the same. Chocolate syrup or chocolate sauce is thinner and more pourable, whereas hot fudge sauce is thicker and richer in chocolate flavor.
Making fudge sauce ahead of time
The good news is, homemade hot fudge sauce has long shelf life!
Feel free to make this sauce completely ahead of time, then cool and refrigerate it in an airtight container.
Freezing
This sauce can also be frozen! Just transferred the cooled sauce to a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3-6 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator, warm it back up (you may want to add a little splash of heavy cream to loosen it up), and use as desired!
Storage
Fudge sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container and enjoyed within 1-3 weeks.
Since it’s cold, you’ll want to microwave it a bit to loosen up the sauce.
More Basic Dessert Sauces/Dips:
My Favorite Saucepan!
I know this is an expensive brand, but I wanted to be honest with you about the pan I use to make caramel, and this All-Clad pan is it. You can certainly use any brand of saucepan you’d like, just make sure it has a heavy bottom (look for reviews mentioning even heat distribution).
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Melt
- To a small saucepan, add butter granulated sugar, heavy cream, corn syrup, and salt.
- Cook over MED HIGH heat, whisking until mixture comes to a low boil. Boil gently for about a minute, whisking very frequently.
Add chocolate
- Remove saucepan from the heat, then add the chocolate chips. Stir in and let sit a minute.
- Stir in vanilla extract and continue stirring until chocolate has completely melted.
Serve or store
- Serve warm, or cool and transfer to an airtight container.
Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!
Chef Tips
- This recipe makes approximately 1 3/4 – 2 cups of fudge sauce, which I’ve estimated will serve about 12 (with 2-3 Tbsp for a serving), but feel free to divide it into as many servings as you’d like.
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Catalina says
I have to say, I’ve tried several hot fudge recipes before, but yours takes the cake! It had the perfect balance of sweetness and chocolate depth.
Katerina Petrovska says
AMAZING! It was rich, thick, and chocolaty, with just the right amount of sweetness. Drizzling it over ice cream really took my dessert game to the next level. A total game-changer for chocolate lovers!
April says
I LOVE hot fudge – I had no idea how easy it was to make at home, but this is even better than the store bought stuff!
Erin says
It’s absolutely fantastic! I’m definitely making this again!
Sandra says
I’ve been looking for a hot fudge sauce recipe that is not too sweet and I’m glad I found this! This is my go to recipe now!
Beth says
Holy cow. I usually just buy the sauce from the store, but I knew I had to try this. It’s the best hot fudge sauce I’ve ever had!
Peggy says
Can I use semi-sweet bar chocolate instead of chips? If so, how many many ounces would I need ? Love your recipes
Ckws says
I’m not sure this sauce will make it to the ice cream. It may just end up on a spoon. I like it with the semi sweet but might try it with dark chocolate next times.