It's all those little things...
...those little things that can really affect people.
I have a story to share with you that really means a lot to me. A reader of this overly chocolatey blog e-mailed me a while back asking for some guidance and advice around the study of Food Science and the best Universities with such programmes. I love when this happens because it means I've connected. It means that all of the foodie love I have spilled out from my heart and my brain (and my stomach) to the internet space of webpages, blurbs and far too many photos of Justin Bieber has actually found its way into someone else's heart, brain and stomach.
I love when I hear from any of you, period.
But, this was a special case. She told me how it was through reading my blog that she actually learned that the study of Food Science even existed, and the idea of becoming a Food Scientist really excited her. She contacted me in search of advice on where to apply. I told her my opinion and of course encouraged her to pursue the open world of food and science!
A few months later I receive another lovely email from her letting me know that she followed my advice and has ended up accepted into the Food Science programme at Cornell University starting this Fall. Knowing this makes all my 6 years of blogging worth it - aside from the fact that it gives me a very regular excuse to eat cake.
I am super excited for this lovely individual and hope that she falls in love with Food Science as hard as I did. Get ready for a deliciously playful world of beakers and burettes, and of eating your experiments!
This occasion calls for something really special - an ode to my University days.... a big fat HOT FUDGE SUNDAE!
Sometimes (almost always) on Sunday nights during Uni, I would turn on Grey's Anatomy, sit down on the couch, plop a huge bowl of ice cream in my lap, cover it with hot fudge and call it dinner.
I did that. A lot....
I don't any more (totally do when no one's home!).
If you want to experience the most incredible ice cream sundae, you need hot fudge. And, it needs to be the kind that hardens when it hits the cold stuff. By "hard" I mean that it will firm up and get chewy like toffee, not that it will crack. Do you get where I'm going? It's fudge!
This recipe does just that! Let's get into this!
How do we make it so that it stays chewy like this? Easy.
Usually I would boil the sauce and simmer for a minute or two to dissolve the sugar and evaporate the excess moisture.
We can skip this step by doing these two things:
First we must use dark chocolate - at least 60%. I go for 70%. Make sure it is of a fine quality. The cocoa butter in chocolate has a very high melting point, meaning that it is very hard at room temperature and will help the fudge sauce set firmly once cooled. The higher the "cocoa" content of your chocolate, the more cocoa butter it will have. If you use semi-sweet chocolate, it will have more sugar than cocoa butter.
Second, we use some cocoa powder in addition to chocolate. The additional solids help to bind moisture and tighten up the sauce. It also makes it really dang chocolatey!
It comes together in seconds. You have a few seconds, right? I thought so.
The only thing wrong with this picture is that I need a bigger bowl. Word.
3-Minute Hot Fudge Saucemakes about 1 cup
100 g/3.5 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa), finely chopped2 tablespoon (12 g) cocoa powder, sifted⅓ cup light corn syrup⅓ cup heavy cream¼ cup (35 g) icing sugar, sifted½ teaspoon vanilla extract⅛ teaspoon salt
Place the chopped chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat and stir constantly for a minute or two until completely melted and smooth.
Once melted, stir in sifted cocoa powder followed by corn syrup and cream. Add sifted icing sugar and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.
Pour sauce into a clean jar and let cool. Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. Simply re-warm gently before serving and love every bit!
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