Espresso Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe: Delicious and ready in 10 minutes! (2024)

FAQs

Why is my homemade hot fudge sauce grainy? ›

Be sure to serve warm, and, when reheating, reheat only the amount of sauce you intend to use; repeated heating and chilling can make the sauce grainy.

Hot fudge is made by boiling together cream, sugar, chocolate, and sometimes butter—the traditional ingredients for fudge—into what is essentially just an undercooked, unset version of the confection. It differs from plain old chocolate sauce by virtue of being gooier and more viscous.

Cornflour/Cornstarch: Mix a small amount with cold milk or water to create a smooth paste. Whisk this into your hot chocolate towards the end of the cooking process until it thickens.

Sugar Crystals Formed

It's important to beat the fudge ingredients to develop the right texture, but you won't get smooth, creamy fudge if you beat it when it's too hot. Beating fudge when it's still over heat creates sugar crystals, aka the grittiness you feel in the fudge.

Once a seed crystal forms, it grows bigger and bigger as the fudge cools. A lot of big crystals in fudge makes it grainy. By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals.

The more liquid you incorporate—whether it's brine, vinegar, or soy sauce—the thinner your sauce will be. For a smoother texture, prolonged blending is your best bet. If you want your sauce even smoother, then straining that blended sauce is an even better option.

Too cooked

This fudge was cooked to a temperature of 118 °C (244 °F). At this temperature, the sugar is too concentrated and there is not enough water left to form syrup around sugar crystals. The result is hard and brittle fudge.

How to thicken your fudge? If your fudge it noticeably thin, you may want to add more chocolate. If you are out of chocolate, you can also add 1/4-1/2 cup of powdered sugar. This, however, can make the fudge very sweet.

If your fudge is tough, hard, or grainy, then you may have made one of several mistakes: You may have overcooked it, beaten it too long, or neglected to cool it to the proper temperature. Don't throw out the whole pan, because you may be able to melt the fudge down and try again.

Why is my 3 ingredient fudge not setting? ›

Why won't my 3 ingredient fudge set? This often happens when the condensed milk and chocolate chip mixture isn't hot enough to start. Everything must be completely melted before it is transferred to the pan to cool.

Options for what you can do with your unset fudge:

OPTION 1) Depending on how runny it is, you can either use it as a frosting for cakes, or a sauce for ice-cream. OPTION 2) Freeze it overnight. Cut it into squares. Cover each square thickly in melted chocolate, ensuring no part of the fudge is exposed.

Fudge usually behaves this way when it's not cooked to a high enough temperature (due to oversight or a faulty candy thermometer). If your fudge is tough, hard, or grainy, then you may have made one of several mistakes: You may have overcooked it, beaten it too long, or neglected to cool it to the proper temperature.

Funnily enough, it's super simple. First boil some water. Second, very slowly, as in 1-2 tsp at a time add in the boiling water and whisk the chocolate vigorously until the mixture is smooth again. The hot water will essentially melt the clumps back to a liquid consistency.

All you have to do is cool the broken sauce, add a tablespoon of lemon juice (or white wine, if you don't mind the flavor), and whisk vigorously. This trick works best if you haven't already added acid to the sauce. Add too much acidity, and you might get the opposite effect of further breakage — balance is the key.

Q: "Every time I make homemade mac and cheese the sauce is smooth at first but then gets grainy (paste-like) as it cools. What am I doing wrong?" A: "Your ratios—from your roux to the fat content in the cheeses that you're using—may be a little off," Rach says. "You also just may be overcooking it."