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Dessert

Hot Chocolate Sauce

A hot chocolate sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, chocolate, cream, sherry, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Hot Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix butter, powdered sugar, and grated chocolate in a bowl.

  2. Add cream and bring to a boil for 6 to 7 minutes.

  3. Stir in sherry and vanilla, cooking for a few seconds longer.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce very hot over vanilla ice cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce thicken and turn glossy as it dissolves.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Supplies moisture and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, pourable texture.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a fruity, aromatic depth to the chocolate.

The step that matters

Bring the cream to a boil and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Boiling the cream reduces its water and concentrates the sauce, while stirring keeps the chocolate and sugar from scorching on the bottom. Too little cooking leaves the sauce thin, and too much makes it overly thick and grainy as it cools.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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