The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (369 page)

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Commercial hot fudge sauces, while readily available, are often overly sweet and lack chocolate flavor. High-end chocolate makers have their own sauces, which can be quite good, but their cost can often be prohibitive. Homemade hot fudge sauces pose their own problems, as they often turn out grainy and overcooked. We wanted to develop a recipe for hot fudge that was lush and complex, intensely chocolaty, smooth and satiny, and mildly sweet. To produce the intense chocolate flavor we were after, we used not one but two types of chocolate: Dutch-processed cocoa (for its deep flavor and rich color) and semisweet chocolate. To make sure the sugar was completely dissolved, thereby avoiding any graininess, we melted the chocolate separately and added it to the other ingredients only after the sugar had dissolved. Separating out the chocolate also minimized the time that it was exposed to heat, which served to keep it from tasting “overcooked.” Our hot fudge sauce was now smooth and silky, with deep chocolate flavor.

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

Sifting the cocoa powder prevents lumps from forming in the sauce.

1.
Microwave chocolate in bowl at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 4 minutes. Whisk in cocoa until dissolved; set aside.

2.
Heat corn syrup, sugar, cream, water, and salt in medium saucepan over low heat without stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high; simmer mixture, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes.

3.
Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Let cool slightly, about 2 minutes; whisk in melted chocolate mixture. Serve warm. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.)

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Caramel is at home in many settings, whether drizzled over a slice of pound cake, pooled at the base of a flan, or wrapped around a crisp apple. Part of what fascinates about caramel is its alchemy—the transformation of white, odorless sugar into aromatic gold. But this is why many cooks tend to shy away from making caramel; while the transformation that takes place is simple, homemade caramel sauce has a tendency to burn and recrystallize. To reduce the guesswork and anxiety that seem inseparably linked to making caramel sauce at home, we developed a recipe in which the sugar is added after the water, making stirring unnecessary. Increasing the proportion of water in our caramel sauce prevented the sugar from traveling up the sides of the pot, and keeping the pot covered allowed condensation to dissolve any stray crystals. While little can be done to quell the vigorous bubbling when the cream is added, we found that heating the cream beforehand helped.

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

If you don’t own a candy thermometer, follow the time approximations in the recipe and watch the color of the sugar syrup; it should be a deep amber color before the cream is added. To keep the sauce from clumping, make sure the cream is hot before adding it to the sugar syrup; try to coordinate it so that the cream reaches a simmer when the sugar syrup reaches 350 degrees.

1.
Pour water into medium saucepan; pour sugar into center of pan, taking care not to let sugar crystals touch side of pan. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Uncover and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored and registers 300 degrees, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; continue to cook until sugar is deep amber and registers 350 degrees, about 5 minutes.

2.
Meanwhile, bring cream and salt to simmer in small saucepan over high heat. (If cream reaches simmer before syrup reaches 350 degrees, remove cream from heat and set aside.)

3.
Remove sugar syrup from heat. Carefully pour about one-quarter of hot cream into sugar syrup (mixture will bubble vigorously); let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream; let bubbling subside. Whisk gently until smooth, then whisk in butter. Let cool until warm and serve. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.)

Whisk 3 tablespoons dark rum into finished sauce.

Stir one 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced into thin rounds, and ¹⁄
₄
teaspoon coconut extract into finished sauce. Let sit to infuse flavors, about 10 minutes; strain through fine-mesh strainer.

Whisk 3 tablespoons Kahlúa, 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder, and 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest into finished sauce.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Supermarket shelves are teeming with prepared dessert sauces, especially butterscotch-flavored sauces. But they usually taste artificial and cloyingly sweet, with a one-note flavor profile. We set out to develop our own recipe, with the goal being a complexly flavored sauce that balanced the richness of the butter with the depth of the brown sugar. For the base of our sauce, we heated a cup of brown sugar with a stick of butter. Once they came together, we added some heavy cream to ensure a thick, velvety texture and vanilla to round out the sauce’s flavor. A small amount of corn syrup made it pour smoothly over ice cream, gelato, or anything else we drizzled it over.

MAKES ABOUT
1¹⁄
₂
CUPS

Be careful when stirring in the cream because the hot mixture may splatter.

1.
Heat sugar and butter in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often, until mixture bubbles and becomes lighter in color, 3 to 5 minutes.

2.
Remove pan from heat and slowly whisk in cream until combined (mixture will bubble vigorously). Stir in corn syrup and vanilla. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.)

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Crème anglaise is a velvety and versatile custard sauce—it tastes great over fresh or baked fruit and with many different cakes and other desserts. In pursuit of a rich, creamy, perfectly smooth crème anglaise, we learned that properly tempering (raising the temperature of an egg yolk–enriched mixture gradually) the custard was crucial; this prevents the eggs from curdling as they are incorporated into the milk. To do this, we slowly added a cup of the hot milk to the yolk mixture to warm the yolks, then poured the mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the hot milk. (The initial addition of the hot milk does the tempering, so that the yolks are able to stand the heat of the remaining hot milk.) When adding the hot liquid to the egg yolk mixture, it was essential to whisk constantly so that the milk didn’t scramble the egg yolks. Once the yolks were added to the pan, more stirring ensured our crème anglaise had the smoothest texture possible. Straining the sauce before chilling it provided further insurance that it would be silky-smooth when drizzled over cake, fruit, or anything else.