Red Wine Hot Fudge Sauce

Isn't it always true that when you don't have any chocolate ready to eat in the house, you crave it more than ever? My in-laws left behind a pint of vanilla bean ice cream, and I'm the kind of person who can't just eat vanilla. It has to have a topping or BE the topping on something else.

On Sunday night, I had a hankering for chocolate, but knew all I had in the house was the vanilla ice cream and baking chocolate. Then, I had a thought: what about a red wine chocolate sauce? As usual, the internet proved to me it could be done. Using this recipe by Food Coma as a guide, I whipped some up and had a rich Sunday sundae.

First, I chopped up about 2 cups of Ghirardelli baking chocolate.

I had this leftover tempranillo, so I decided to use that. In hindsight, I would use a sweeter red, or maybe a less fruity one, because the tartness took a little getting used-to.

I brought a cup to a boil, then turned down the heat and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes. At that point, I added the chocolate and a 1/2 cup of light corn syrup. It melted FAST and was very, very thick.

I found out the hard way that it hardens fast, too! But that was kind of the cool part about it...it really did get that gooey consistency of hot fudge. The recipe yields just enough for a tiny jar, so you could probably give it as a stocking stuffer.

I will note, I probably would've liked it an eensy bit thinner, so I'd suggest fiddling with the amounts of the ingredients until you get the right blend.