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Chocolate Sauce II
1 square unsweetened chocolate 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon butter 1/3 cup boiling water 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Melt chocolate; add butter, and pour on gradually water. Bring to boiling-point, add sugar, and let boil five minutes, cool slightly, and add vanilla.
A plain boiled chocolate syrup of the kind kept on hand for ice cream and steamed puddings. It comes together in under ten minutes and thickens considerably as it cools.
- A square of chocolateBaking chocolate was sold in scored blocks of one-ounce squares, so this is 1 oz unsweetened chocolate. Modern bars are often 4 oz total; weigh rather than guess.
- Melt gentlyUnsweetened chocolate seizes and scorches easily over direct heat. Use a bowl over hot water or very low heat, and stir the butter in before the water goes near it.
- Add the water graduallyPouring boiling water into melted chocolate all at once will make it clump. Adding it in a thin stream while stirring keeps the emulsion smooth; a brief whisk fixes it if it does break.
- The five-minute boilThis is a sugar-syrup boil, not a reduction for flavour. Five minutes at a steady bubble concentrates the syrup enough that the sauce thickens to a pourable consistency once cool. Boil much longer and it may set firm in the jar.
- Vanilla lastThe recipe adds vanilla off the heat, after slight cooling, which is the usual practice for preserving its aroma; some of it is lost to the steam if stirred into boiling syrup.
- SweetnessA full cup of sugar to one ounce of chocolate is sweet by current taste. If you want it darker, use two squares of chocolate rather than cutting the sugar, which is doing structural work in the syrup.
- Yield and keepingAbout three-quarters of a cup, enough for four to six servings. It keeps a couple of weeks refrigerated and will need warming or a spoonful of hot water to pour again.