This has to be a quick post today, as we have a bunch of stuff we need to do outside the home. So, forgive us if it seems abbreviated.
This week, we need to bring a dessert to a dinner meeting. We knew about it far in advance, giving us plenty of time to decide on what to make. With the heat of summer, we decided to bring the ingredients for ice cream sundaes. Now, we know we could run out and buy the stuff, but it’s not too bad to make some of the ingredients in the kitchen. Let’s run down what we need. Ice cream: Check, we’ll make Triple Vanilla Ice Cream. Fruit sauce: check, how about Cherry Compote? Nuts: check, simply chop some peanuts. Whipped cream: ah, you caught us, we bought a can of the squirty kind. Chocolate sauce: check, this recipe.
This recipe comes from the basics section of Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller, and it’s about the easiest recipe in the book. Anyone can make it, in just a few minutes. And, it’s good.
Ad Hoc’s Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
- 200 g chopped chocolate (7 ounces)
- 85 g corn syrup (1/4 cup)
- 180 g heavy cream (3/4 cup)
Instructions
- Place chopped chocolate in a bowl.
- Mix together corn syrup and heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer.
- Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate. Let stand for 1 minutes.
- Stir chocolate/cream until smooth and glossy.
- Use immediately or refrigerate, rewarming before use.
Ingredient discussion:
The original recipe calls for 55% cacao or semi-sweet chocolate. Note that this must be chocolate, not chocolate chips, which have ingredients that may interfere with melting and forming a smooth sauce. We don’t have 55% cacao in the house, so we went with a darker chocolate: 70% Callabaut, which we buy in 11-pound bars. Corn syrup is to prevent crystals from forming in the sauce; no one likes crystals of sugar in their smooth sauce, so do include it. If you worry about high-fructose corn syrup, check the ingredients list. We find that the national brand doesn’t have high-fructose corn syrup added, but the store-brands do. We buy the national brand. We also try to use organic heavy cream, simply because it’s just that: cream.
Procedure in detail:
Chop chocolate. If you haven’t already, chop up your chocolate into pieces between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch in size. You want them small enough that they’ll melt easily from the heat of the cream — no lumps in chocolate sauce — so err on the side of too small versus too large.
Heat liquids. In a small saucepan, combine the corn syrup and heavy cream and place over medium-high heat. Stir continuously while heating to prevent scorching, and, once the mixture comes to a very gentle simmer, remove from heat.
Stand. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for 1 minute, allowing the chocolate to start melting.
Stir. Use a spoon or a spatula to stir the mixture. At first it’ll look as if the chocolate’s melting, but not combining. Then it’ll look as if there are tiny shards of chocolate floating in the mix. Finally it’ll begin emulsifying, forming a smooth sauce. Even after it looks smooth, keep stirring until the sauce is shiny. That’s the indication that the chocolate is completely emulsified into the cream.
This is a nice rich chocolate sauce, perfect for ice cream, and it’s so easy you’ll never think about buying the squeeze bottle of sauce again. Sure, it might be more expensive to make than buying the squeeze bottle, but that’s because you can choose and use the very best ingredients. Isn’t that why you make things from scratch? Five stars.
