Instructions

1. Put the cocoa powder in a medium heavy-bottomed pot.
2. Put 1/3 cup of the boiling water into the pot with the cocoa and mix to form a thick paste.
3. Put the pot on the stove over medium-low heat.
4. Add the rest of the water and the butter. Stir well with a wooden spoon. It will be lumpy and funky looking but don’t despair. Just keep stirring. It will smooth out once it heats up.
5. Once it smooths out a bit, add the sugar and the corn syrup.
6. Stir to incorporate.
7. Keep the mixture on the stove over medium-low heat and bring it up to a simmer. By this point it should be smooth and liquidy.
8. Now this is IMPORTANT! You need take a pastry brush and brush down the insides of the pot with water. As the mixture comes up to a simmer, brush down the insides of the pot with water to dissolve any stray sugar crystals. If you don’t do this, if you get one sugar crystal in the fudge sauce it’ll end up turning it into solid candy.
9. Working fast, use a pastry brush dipped in a little cold water. Try not to get extra water into the mixture You really only have to do this a few times.
10. Steps 8 and 9 should be fairly quick as you only want this to simmer exactly 8 minutes WITHOUT stirring. So yes, cook this for exactly 8 minutes. Now keep in mind you only want this to be at a good simmer/low boil. Keep an eye on your heat as you may need to adjust it.
11. As soon as your 8 minutes are done, remove the pan from the stove.
12. Add the vanilla and stir with a CLEAN wooden spoon. Why? You don’t want any stray undissolved sugar crystals to get into your luscious sauce!
13. Pour into an air-tight, heat-proof glass jar. Store in the fridge.
14. To reheat, remove the jar from the fridge and bring to room temp. Wait… who am I kidding? This’ll be gone in 1 setting 🙂
15. Once at room temp, remove the lid and put it in a pot of warm water where the water comes up a few inches up the side of the jar and reheat for about 5-10 minutes or until the sauce is heated through.