For the love of chocolate sauce
I have a problem.
What is that problem, you ask? The fact that I can rarely follow a recipe to the letter. I don’t know what it is, but I always find myself tinkering, trying to get the flavours adjusted to my tastes rather than trusting the person who wrote the recipe to begin with. And this happened yet again with my search for a recipe for chocolate sauce.
Rich chocolate sauce drizzled on ‘ice cream’
A few months back I was in desperate need of a chocolate hit, but looking through my cookbooks for a chocolate sauce recipe revealed that every single one asked for cream. The problem? I had no cream, and was not about to walk through the pouring rain to try and acquire some (yes, I’m 25 and I’m still on my learner’s permit! Just don’t ask how long I’ve been on it for…).
What happens when your cookbooks fail you? Why, you turn to your fellow food bloggers, of course! I started trawling through site after site, but my desperation only increased as I couldn’t find a recipe for a rich, thick sauce that would be sufficiently decadent without the cream factor.
However, as luck would have it, the very last site that I looked at had exactly what I was looking for! The talented David Lebovitz posted a recipe for a chocolate sauce that featured neither butter nor cream and was just as rich and glossy as one that did!
Profiteroles drowning in chocolate sauce - a match truly made in heaven
Super excited, I immediately printed it out and raced off to the kitchen to give it a whirl. All my ingredients in the pot, I started stirring and stirring, watching excitedly as it started to come together into a dark, shiny liquid. However, (and this is where my inability to trust even someone as talented as Mr. Lebovitz comes in), it remained thin and watery, and so I started to panic. I reread the instructions and I had followed them to the letter.
Knowing from my ample experience with making chocolate ganache, I knew that adding more chocolate would make it thicker, so I doubled the chocolate content and watched with satisfaction as it thickened up beautifully. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten that chocolate also thickens as it cools, so the next day when I went to sample my new sauce, I found that it had thickened up more than I had expected. This isn’t a bad thing - in fact, when chilled this sauce becomes thick enough to ’spread’, and if you want something thinner you can give it a quick zap in the microwave to warm it up again 
It is a VERY good recipe, and I actually prefer it to ganache as it has all it’s richness without the throat-clogging creaminess that ganache does Give it a try next time you need a chocolate sauce recipe, I guarantee that you’ll be sneaking spoonfuls out of the fridge when you think nobody’s looking 
Creamless Chocolate Sauce
(accidentally adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe)
Ingredients
1 cup water
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
110g good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1. Put the water, sugar, corn syrup and cocoa powder into a saucepan and whisk it till combined.
2. Place the saucepan over medium heat and once it begins to boil, turn the heat off and add the chocolate, stirring till it has completely melted. Allow to cool slightly to thicken up.
Serve this sauce warm for something that you can drizzle, or cold if you want to dollop or spread it Either way, it tastes delicious!
Technorati Tags: chocolate sauce, chocolate, david lebovitz, recipes, dessert, sweets
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Now I have heard of the phrase “food porn”, but these pictures really personify it. They are evil and oh so good. Fantastic chocolate sauce.
Gorgeous, Ellie! There’s very little that wouldn’t benefit from a little chocolate sauce! The last pic reminds me of chocolate lava flowing!
Is that the chocolate sauce on the profiteroles before you started tampering with it? It looks about right to me.
Ooh how divine! And I adore the new layout! I think it’s a good thing that you allow yourself to tweak recipes. I’m the opposite and follow them to the T which can sometimes be a bit frustrating. (Btw, nice to know I’m not the only one still on their L’s!)
Rachel - Thanks hon I definitely think everyone should have a choc sauce recipe in their repertoire, it is super nifty for jazzing up desserts (or even fruit, hehehe!)
Cheryl - Aww shucks, thank you sweetie
Deborah - It’s a sign that you need some choc sauce, stat! 
Patricia - Thank you sunshine
Gilly - Mmmm, chocolate lava, now there’s a thought!
Kat - Hahaha, thanks hon They’re the same size as before, but I think the dark background really makes them ‘pop’
Neil - Nope, that’s the post-tampered sauce, before tampering it was a lot thinner than that!
Robyn - Thanks sweetie, I’m glad you like the new look As for the tweaking, unfortunately it’s just a habit that I’ve picked up from my mother (she cannot bring herself to EVER follow a recipe) but I’m getting better And it’s nice to know that someone out there is still on their L’s like me too
Your blog is fantastic!
I love your recipes and can’t wait to test some of them out.
Your not alone when you say you can’t follow a recipe as Iam guilty of that as well.
I always start off saying Iam not going to change anything just stick to the recipe, but that never happens always have too add my touch lol.
Look forward to reading more mouth watering recipes.
jennilee
I desperately want to just drown myself in that river of chocolate. Looks incredibly sinful and delicious!
Love the new retro look, Ellie! I could eat spoonfuls of that sauce right now, and it’s only 7:45 am here!
Jennilee - Aww shucks, thanks sweetie 
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! Thanks for letting me know
Cris - It is a very good recipe
Truffle - Hmm, Augustus Gloomph style? It’d be an interesting way to go
Susan - Thanks, hon
Site looks really great, very sophisticated (maybe one day my blog will grow up to be like this!), and the chocolate sauce… time to make some ice cream and sauce!
This is good stuff Ellie! I have bookmarked this for the times when I need a chocolate sauce and there’s no cream in the house
That’s the same recipe contest I used at the restaurant. It was easier to have this one on hand because the consistency was always great and ould keep a long time between shifts because it did not contain any cream. Those pics are sending me to sugar heaven!
Helen - you’re absolutely right, this sauce is a lot more reliable in terms of texture thanks to the lack of cream
YUM! I have never made my own chocolate sauce before but I might have to start now. I love the new look, by the way! Very chic!