Easy and Chocolatey Cocoa Hot Fudge Sauce

It's not easy to find good tasting chocolate here in Ghana. Cocoa beans are grown and processed here produced but the local chocolate bars are very chalky tasting - maybe because of the heat so they won't melt? I don't know. But the cocoa powder tastes great and is inexpensive. So here's a good recipe for cocoa powder based chocolate sauce from foodess.com

A few tips: I use a 4 cup glass measuring cup for cooking this. It allows boiling without boiling over. The first time you heat it up - it will boil high and dissolve the sugar in 1 1/2 or 2 minutes. After adding the butter and cooking again, the fudge sauce will boil high for about a minute. Stir every 30 seconds or so and don't quite heating. By the second minute the sauce settles down lower and just boils and thickens. I think if you skip this step the sauce will be thin. I boil mine for 3 full minutes and stir often. You can add some squares of chocolate along with the vanilla if you want richer flavor. You can also try adding flavorings. I put orange peel in with the sugar in my last batch. Child flakes would be fun.

Be sure to use good tasting cocoa powder.

Of course the best ever chocolate sauce is pure melted top quality dark chocolate with some milk or cream stirred in. It will seize and thicken at first, but keep adding milk and stirring. Leftovers taste just like the center of a truffle.

Cocoa Hot Fudge Sauce

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or milk
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

1. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine sugar, cocoa and cream. Cook on high 2-3 minutes, until sugar dissolves and mixture boils.

2. Stir in butter and cook on high 2-4 minutes more, watching closely and stirring every 30 seconds or so, until mixture thickens. Stir in vanilla and a pinch of salt.