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Who doesn’t love a scoop of dark chocolate hot fudge sauce on their ice cream sundae, am I right? It’s like a dollop of magical bliss or a bit of bipity-boppity-boo!

There’s a million and one ways to make chocolate sauce. To be honest, there’s a ton of great options in the grocery store, but if you’re like me and gluten-free, you’re tired of getting glutened in all the wrong ways by all the unexpected places.

If you read the ingredients on those tempting jars, you might just find some kind of preservative or enhancer that is tainted with gluten – Never Assume It’s Gluten-free!

That’s why we just make our own dark chocolate hot fudge sauce when we want it. We keep bars of Guittard’s Semi-Sweet chocolate on hand for just this kind of occasion. That makes it sound like we dip into hot fudge sundaes on a regular basis, but we don’t – and that’s why when we do, we want to make it special. (I’m not in any way affiliated with any brands, just sharing my 2¢).

What Might Cause Your Chocolate to Seize

Ok, if you’ve ever seized up your chocolate, you’ll know how much you could just hit the “command-z” button, but not to fear! There are some simple rules to follow in order to get the most out of your chocolate and your time.

In fact, there’s a great reference article on Food52 about “What to Do When Your Chocolate Seizes”.

Basically, the most important thing I remind myself is to be very careful not to let the chocolate get in contact with any kind of moisture prior to melting. This is the easiest and surest way to seize up your chocolate.

Rules to Follow When Making Your Dark Chocolate Hot Fudge Sauce:

• Do not let the chocolate bars or bits get in any contact with moisture before melting.
• Only use room temperature or warm ingredients.
• While melting the chocolate, make sure to not overheat it or leave it too long unstirred.

Flavor and Texture Boosters

Personally, I love a little sea salt and espresso crystals to take my dark chocolate notes to new heights. I highly recommend experimenting with different flavored salts, sugars or other flavor enhancers that suit your palette to make it your own.

Some folks like to add vanilla, call me silly, but I’ve just had too many seized up adventures with vanilla, not sure what I’ve done wrong, but I’ve opted to do without it.

One of the later-in-life lessons I’ve also learned is that heavy cream over heavy whipping cream is the way to go.

Why Heavy Cream Versus Heavy Whipping Cream?

So apparently heavy cream has more fat content than whipping cream, which gives your sauce a gorgeous consistency and gloss. We’ve used heavy whipping cream for years, and it totally works, but if you’re going for the full effect, give heavy cream a try!

Storing and Reheating

Truthfully, we rarely make so much that we have any to store. If there’s cream in your sauce, I would assume it’s not as tasty after a week in the refrigerator. That’s why the recipe is for about 4 very generous portions.

If you want to make this ahead, go ahead and store in a glass jar so that it can be microwaved for about a minute once you bring it to room temperature.

Modifications or Alternatives

If I want the chocolate sauce to harden nicely, for example on my Ice Cream Sandwiches, I’ll skip the cream and bump up the salt and sugar since it will be frozen.

So the next time you want to take your ice cream to the next level, remember, in just 10 sweet minutes you can have yourself a silky, smooth and delicious, homemade dark chocolate hot fudge ice cream sundae!