A chocolate fudge sauce story

I’m telling you a story about chocolate fudge sauce because you’ll probably want to make it for yourself. In fact, it’s so easy that your kids or grandchildren could make it for you. And while I’m a green-smoothie drinking/kale salad sort of person, I’m also a chocolate lover.

I found this recipe in a magazine several years ago, tore it out and filed it under desserts in one of my cooking folders in a plastic pocket. That plastic pocket is bent at the corner and smeared with chocolate. I don’t even need to use it now – the recipe created its own neurological groove in my brain.

When I was pregnant with Miss 10, I had trouble sleeping. On one particular Saturday night when I couldn’t sleep, I went into the kitchen and made this sauce, ready for a lunch the next day. It was 3am.

This Easter, we went away as we usually do with some of our closest, oldest friends – seven adults, nine kids. I made this sauce to serve with birthday cake and ice-cream for the kids, and made sure I explained the recipe to at least one kid from each family.

‘Four ingredients, kids – you can remember that! Now, repeat it back to me because you’ll be passing this one on to your kids!’

You can serve this sauce as a dip for strawberries. It’s delicious for kids over plain vanilla ice-cream. It’s decadent over a sophisticated adult ice-cream dessert. It makes a chocolate brownie extraordinarily special.

It takes less than ten minutes to create. You can remember the four ingredients in the supermarket when you’re looking for something to serve to guests coming that night for dinner. You can store it in the fridge for a few days – but it never lasts that long in our home.

I love that I have made this chocolate fudge sauce for many people, at many occasions and I’ve passed it on to others. And now here it is for you!

Chocolate fudge sauce

• Stand in the kitchen, knowing you can create something delicious within ten minutes.
• Pour a 300ml tub of cream into a medium saucepan.
• Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract or slit a vanilla bean and throw it in.
• Break up a 200g block of dark chocolate and add it to the saucepan.
• Open up a packet of mixed white and pink marshmallows. Keep the pink ones for nibbling later. Add in the white ones.
• Stir gently and mindfully on a low-medium heat for about ten minutes. Watch the metamorphosis of these separate ingredients into one delicious creation. Mindfully watch the white marshmallow blobs blend into the sauce – that’s the last ingredient to melt. Stir constantly so the sauce doesn’t bubble up.
• Remove the vanilla bean if you used one.
• Take a moment to appreciate the glossy gorgeousness of your creation. Share with loved ones.

Make this recipe with someone or pass it on by email.

I realise I should probably have linked this recipe to a book – perhaps Like water for chocolate or Chocolat – so it will fit with my blog theme of books. But my blog is also about stories, and this recipe is part of my cooking story and my pregnant insomnia story and my sharing food with friends story. I hope it becomes part of your cooking story, too.