Chocolate Sauce

Ever in the mood for ice cream and chocolate sauce? Me, too. Just the other day, in fact, I was overwhelmed with such a grand idea. But, although I will buy Haagen-Dazs ice cream, I haven’t found a chocolate sauce to buy (ok, Frans, but that’s half my monthly income, so out of the question). But, I have a very nice recipe for chocolate sauce and all the ingredients, so I set out to make it myself.

My recipe is for too large of a batch, for starts. Secondly, I want to use up the cream I bought for my birthday. And, I don’t really want to adjust every single measurement. What’s more, I only have dark chocolate enough for somewhere between 1/3 and ½ of the recipe. You got it, all I needed was one of those issues to make up my own version!

I began by caramelizing 1 and 1/5th cup of sugar. How I came by this fraction I probably couldn’t reproduce. Yet, I did it in my head more than once and besides, it felt right…. I whisked in a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder, then slowly added my warm liquids (1C heavy cream, 1C water, large splash of vanilla extract). Whisking into a caramel can be intimidating, so I just take it easy. There’s no rush. I poured this boiling goo over my approximately 140g of 70% and 74% chocolate, which I’d broken into pieces and put in the VitaPrep. I added a 4-finger pinch of salt and blended until the hard chocolate was smooth and emulsified into the liquid caramel.

Then I had the most delicious bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce. Ahh.

6 Ingredients Including the Spoon

The new Haagen-Dazs add campaign is one that I can appreciate. So, as I was making a soup recently, I realized that the formula was perfect. I could translate my ingredients to that slogan and save myself some effort!

Carrots, leeks, broth, pepper, and dairy – just add your spoon. Ok, it isn’t really fair to say that broth is an ingredient since it’s obviously tons of vegetables and seasonings in one flavorful addition. The dairy isn’t too accurate, either. I did use about ½ C of cream and then 1 ½ C milk. I guess that if they’d been incorporated to some version of Half and Half then I could claim that. But they didn’t, and I don’t.

Another complication, when you get to the table, it’s completely fair to season one’s soup with more salt and pepper, but I’ve never added salt to ice cream once it’s spun and in my bowl. And Haagen-Dazs doesn’t mention salt. How do they make an ice cream I like without a touch of salt? I'm not sure, for when I look at the absolute most phenomenal ice creams their ingredients are: milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and a flavor, such as vanilla.

When I shift my attention to the most amazing soups, don’t they need a combination of vegetables sautéed in butter, water, herbs, seasoning, and maybe a wine reduction and cream brought in at the end? That’s just a vegetable soup, but I love soups with beans, and meat, and broth soups, too.

I have come away deciding that five ingredients aren’t that many. But they do make quite an impression on me, even if my style is a bit of a cheat. I haven’t put a spoon to the new Haagen-Dazs ice cream, but I’ve begun to revolutionize my meals by cutting myself off after pulling five things from the fridge and cupboards. With fall at my door, and broths and heaps of vegetables in a pot, I’ve been eating as well as ever!