web-log/container/site/content/posts/hot-fudge/index.md

+++ categories = ["food"] date = 2025-02-22T11:51:00-06:00 description = "" draft = false slug = "hot-fudge" title = "🍦 Hot Fudge" author = "nicholas" +++

I want to make the the NYTimes Hot Fudge Sauce recipe. The recipe provides mostly volume measurements, so I will have to convert these to weight values. Also as usual, I will stubbornly substitute some ingredients for more shelf-stable and/or cheaper options.

NYTimes Recipe

This is the list provided by the NYTimes recipe. Every single ingredient quantity except chocolate is provided by volume.

quantity	ingredient
2 cups	heavy cream
4 tbsp	unsalted butter
½ cup	light brown sugar
¾ cup	granulated sugar
¼ tsp	fine sea salt
2 oz	bittersweet chocolate (in small pieces)
1¼ cups	sifted high-fat Dutch-process cocoa
½ tsp	vanilla extract

Substitutions

heavy cream → (water + oil + dry milk powder)

The recipe requires 2 cups of heavy cream. The density of heavy cream is something like 1.01 to 1.03 g/mL, so 2 cups of heavy cream weighs approximately 484 grams. I will use this weight as the basis for calculating the amounts of each substitution ingredient. I simply multiply their respective proportions by the total weight. The table below is the resulting values:

heavy cream nutrient breakdown

nutrient	proportion	weight
water	0.58	281
carbohydrates	0.04	19
protein	0.02	10
milk fat	0.36	174

The water and fat substitutions are trivial: water is water, and milk fat is (as far as the substitution is concerned) fat, but I still need to account for 19 grams carbohydrates and 10 grams protein. Heavy cream is a dairy product, basically milk. So I will replace the carbs and protein that is missing as a result of its absence with non-fat milk powder. This product is basically heavy cream with the water and fat removed.

non-fat milk powder nutrient breakdown

nutrient	proportion	weight
carbohydrates	0.52	15
protein	0.35	10

Non-fat milk powder has approximately what I am missing: 15 grams of carbs and 10 grams of protein. Good enough.

substitution breakdown

nutrient	substitution	weight
water	water	281
carbohydrates	milk powder	29
protein	milk powder
milk fat	vegetable shortening	174

unsalted butter → (water + oil)

The recipe requires 4 tbsp. unsalted butter. This weighs 56 grams. Once again, however, I will substitute this relatively expensive ingredient with cheaper, more shelf stable ingredients: oil and water.

unsalted butter nutrient breakdown

nutrient	proportion	weight
milk fat	0.80	45
water	0.2	11

The substitution is 1:1:

substitution breakdown

nutrient	substitution	weight
milk fat	water	45
water	water	11

fine sea salt → table salt

The recipe requires 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt. I will be substituting fine sea salt with table salt, which has a relative density of 0.90. According to the label on my table salt, ¼ tsp. weighs 1.5 grams. I will need 1.35 grams of table salt.

vanilla extract → imitation vanilla

They really nailed this substitution. Imitation is functionally identical to vanilla extract. I substitute it 1:1.

Conversions

I do not document every conversion here. Nutrition labels typically provide volume and weight values for a serving size. It is not very interesting.

Dutch-process cocoa

This one is tricky. The recipe requires 1 ¼ US cups high-fat Dutch-process cocoa, sifted then measured. I have no interest in learning how they scoop and measure their volume of cocoa powder, so I will just defer to the numbers provided on the nutrition label and convert directly. According to this, 1 Tbsp. weighs 6 grams, and I need 1.25 cups.

Tbsp in 1.25 cups

1.25 \times 16 = 20

grams of cocoa in 20 Tbsp.

20 \times 6 = 120

I will need 120 grams of Dutch process cocoa.

Vanilla Extract

½ tsp. vanilla extract has a density of close enough to 1.0 g/mL. 1 tsp. is 5 mL.

I will need 2.5 grams of vanilla extract.

Result

This table is the result of the substitutions and conversions above.

ingredient	weight
water	292
oil	219
nonfat dry milk powder	29
granulated sugar	144
light brown sugar	96
salt	1.35
bittersweet chocolate	57
dark cocoa powder	120
vanilla extract	2.5
TOTAL	961

Process

Naturally I will rewrite the process to account for my substitutions:

1. In a saucepan, combine oil, sugars, water, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer 45 seconds. Add chocolate, and whisk to dissolve. Remove from heat, add cocoa, and whisk until no lumps remain.
2. Return pan to low heat, and simmer sauce until glossy, whisking constantly, 20 seconds. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Serve warm.

To reheat sauce, warm in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Do not boil.