Hubby and I decided to take the children out for ice cream this evening, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day.  We decided on hamburgers instead, and the children got shakes with their meals.  I did, however, manage to score three pints of gingerbread ice cream while we were at Braum’s:

This idea came about because dear husband reminded me of the amazing brownie sundae I had eaten last time we were at Braum’s (three months ago) with the gingerbread ice cream.  While not behind the counter, they still had some leftover stock they were purging from the holidays.  Score!  I looked at the ingredient list on the hot fudge sauce, however, and decided to come home and make my own instead.

Glorious Hot Fudge Sauce

• 2 sticks (1 cup) real butter
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• *1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
• *1/4 – 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 heaping cupful high quality, dark-chocolate chips
• heavy whipping cream

Bring the first 6 ingredients to a boil over medium heat and maintain temperature for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.  During the last minute, add the chocolate chips, continuing to stir until combined.  Add a splash of whipping cream to thin, about 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cupful and stir until blended.  Carefully pour the sauce into a blender and blend for 2 to 4 minutes.  Serve warm; refrigerate leftovers.  Makes 1 quart plus 5 servings.

My recipe is loosely based on the method from this recipe from AllRecipes – though you can see they are dramatically different. I tested with Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa, Ghirardelli’s 60% Cocoa Bittersweet Baking Chips, and Carnation milk.  *The reason some of the measurements are approximations is because I didn’t exactly measure. 😉

Feel free to re-blog, so long as you give credit where credit is due.