Kip's Hot Fudge Sauce

Cheap Eat Challenge: Join or watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

January gets a bad rap. It has the misfortune to fall between Christmas and Valentine's Day. Additionally, it occurs in what we like to call 'winter'--otherwise known as the season lots of people hate. And not only does January fall in post and pre-holiday winter, it also takes place in the worst part of the winter--that bit where snow and cold and hot soup just aren't that novel anymore, that part when people are starting to wish for sassy old spring to come along and bloom their troubles away. And don't get me wrong, I like spring as much as the next guy, but January with its ice and snow days, with its gray and white, it's always been kind of a nice pause for me (and by 'always' I mean since I got old enough to appreciate such things, so, like, the last 3 years or so). A time to breathe and reflect after Christmas and the old year have passed. A time to rest before the rigors of spring and summer are upon us. Additionally, I had the good sense/fortune to have a baby in the month of January. And if that's not reason enough to enjoy it, my littlest sister and two dear friends also have birthdays in January. Which means, to put it bluntly, that January finds us still making lots of good food. And having people with whom to share it.

So, since man cannot live on bread alone (even if it is cinnamon swirl bread), I give you more chocolate. Because that seems to be what we need to live on in this house. Especially in January. (Just don't forget to share it.)

Kip's Hot Fudge Sauce
This recipe belongs to one of Kip's old roommates--a guy I never knew named John--so, John, if you're out there, can I please post your recipe on my blog? Thank you.
Makes about 4 cups
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Cost: $1.89 or $1.30 depending on type of milk used
(sugar: .32, cocoa: .25, butter: .50, evaporated milk--.79 on sale, (or regular milk: .20), other stuff: .03)

Note on evaporated milk: The original recipe called for evaporated milk. However, once when I was out of it I used regular milk--1 1/2 C and it worked just fine. (Also, I don't know how it would work with skim and therefore can't vouch for that.) I boiled the regular milk a bit longer, just to be safe and the sauce came out tasting the same. Using regular milk will knock $.50 off of the cost of this. However, today I had some evaporated milk getting close to its expiration in the pantry, so that's what I used.

2 C sugar
1/2 C cocoa
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp vanilla

Put butter in saucepan and begin to melt.

In the meantime, sift together dry ingredients in separate bowl.

When butter is melted or close, add the evaporated (or regular) milk. Whisk together. Add dry ingredients and whisk together. Bring all ingredients to a gentle boil. Boil for 5 minutes (gently--this shouldn't be a crazy rollicking boil.) Remove from heat. This is perfect on ice cream or in dessert crepes or, frankly, eaten out of the container with the spoon. Not that we would do such a thing.

Serve warm (unless eating straight out of the fridge, in which case, cold is fine). Leftovers can be kept refrigerated for a couple weeks.

PRINTABLE RECIPE