Satiny Chocolate Sauce

Posted June 07, 2010

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I ate so many of these before getting the shot I wanted that I ended up with a chocolate-sauce hangover.

This was the inspiration, picked minutes earlier as part of our local CSA farm share. Oh beautiful berries!

You might already have all the ingredients already. Grape Nehi, for example. No, I'm kidding! That's vanilla in there.

I got this nice old bottle off the free table at Birdy's karate studio, and I love it. But a small pitcher is actually easier to use.

If you let the sauce cool a bit, it doesn't melt the ice cream as much. But we were eager.

Yum.

Birdy before I told her she had a big smear of chocolate on her face.

And after.

We are a family who eats dessert more or less every night. Not me, usually, on account of the metabolic love letter I'm always writing to salt; I mean, if I'm going to take dietary measures to enlarge my fanny, I'd really rather go all-out and pop open a can of Pringles and eat them in giant nesting towers than stick a spoon into a bowl of sweet. But everyone else around here picks a little something to have after dinner: if I've made a special dessert--a cake, say, or a fruit crumble--then it's that; if there are mochi ice-cream balls from Trader Joe's (picture orbs of mango or strawberry ice cream swaddled in sticky, chewy rice dough), then the kids have those; or, failing better options, they pick something from their candy bags, which house everything from gummy Halloween eyeballs and Easter Peeps to goody-bag loot and insane Alps-themed chocolates sent from my Switzerland-living brother (thank you, Uncle Rob!). Sometimes the kids forget to have dessert, and I'm not exactly at pains to remind them. Or If we've had a ton of sugar on any given day--say there's been a birthday party or we're just getting home from ~~our annual tour of Cape Cod soft ice cream shacks~~ camping--then we might have what we call a "sweetie break" and skip it on purpose. But, as you know, I'm not an enemy of sugar. I feed the kids healthy meals and they drink milk, and then I don't worry too much about the odd treat here and there.

That said, however, I do especially love any sweet thing that shepherds a few extra nutrients into those growing little bodies. I don't mean that I stir yams into our flan or take measures with garbanzo puree or carob-spinach brownies; I just mean pudding or ice cream, on account of the calcium and protein, or fruit desserts, on account of, you know, the fruit. That's where this chocolate sauce comes in. I'm not going to make a case here for the healthfulness of chocolate and its antioxidant something or other, although a case can be made for such a thing. But if I make this chocolate sauce, then usually it becomes more or less a garnish to vast quantities of fruit. In the winter, I will cut up oranges and apples and pears and bananas and serve this in a bowl, fondue-style, for dipping--a dessert Ben has always called Frudité. (A few marshmallows or cubes of baguette or pound cake never hurt either.)

And now, well, now we're sitting pretty in strawberryville, and, yes, perfect berries don't need anything but a mouthful of tongue and teeth to be happily enjoyed--oh, but a little drizzle of chocolate really just takes it up a notch. I took pictures of ice cream sundaes here mostly because that seemed like the classic chocolate-sauce vehicle--and partly because, given that this is all the kids were eating for lunch, I wanted it to be a little more substantial--but the truth is that it's usually just the fruit and the chocolate sauce. And the chocolate sauce is rich and satiny, deeply chocolatey and gorgeous, and it takes less than 5 minutes to make. And everyone will be all, "You made this from scratch?" and you will be all, "I did."

Satiny Chocolate Sauce
Makes about a cup
Total time: 5 minutes

This is our "company" version. If it's only us at home, usually I just put the cream and chocolate in a bowl and microwave it until the chocolate melts, then stir in the vanilla. But it's well worth the extra 11 seconds to make it this way; the moment when the chocolate suddenly goes from grainy to creamy is a beautiful one.

1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about 4 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small pot over medium heat, stirring, bring the half and half, butter, and sugar to a boil. Turn off the heat, dump in the chocolate, leave it for a minute or so, then whisk until smooth before whisking in the vanilla. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Store leftovers in the fridge.

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Satiny Chocolate Sauce

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Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Satiny Chocolate Sauce

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