Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe (2024)

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.

1. Melt. In a saucepan, add butter, sugar, cream, corn syrup and salt. Heat until melted and the mixture has come to a low boil.
2. Add chocolate. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Let sit. Add vanilla and stir until the chocolate is melted.
4. Serve or store.

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.

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.

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).

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