So I was really on a roll there for a while. Right on time with my x2 weekly chocolate posts, just banging those suckers out. Then all hell broke loose. In my life, when it rains it pours. A torrential downpour of work to be exact. I’m juggling so many gigs there are moments when I can’t keep them all straight. Like last night when I showed up for a catering gig that had been cancelled. Oops. (I swear I didn’t miss that somewhere in an endless email chain.) So with some unexpected free time on my hands, I pulled it together, drove home and made myself an ice cream sundae. Why not? But not just any ‘ol ice cream sundae because here’s where the night turned around.
Oh sure, anyone could make a chocolate sauce. Please. As I sat, comfortably ensconced on my couch, enjoying some vino I started to think about how well red wine and chocolate went together. What if I incorporated that idea into my chocolate sauce? What the hell, why not? So I did and it was delicious. Very adult-like and really jazzes up some plain ‘ol store bought ice cream.
The sauce is sort of fudgy at first, with that great chewy texture good hot fudge has, and then really firms up over the cold ice cream into little fudgy nuggets. Most delightful.
This works great with any fruity red wine. I’ve done something similar with champagne but why oh why would anyone have extra champagne lying around? The horror! Drink that up pronto! Not to say you have leftover wine laying around either but sometimes you do so why not give this a try?
STRESS BAKING THERAPY FACTOR: TWO BOOZY THUMBS UP. It’s easy, it’s tasty and it’s impressive as hell. The sauce has this deep earthiness that takes an ordinary chocolate sauce to a whole other fancy place. Yep, this is a mature chocolate sauce. Holy crap.
CHOCOLATE CABERNET SAUCE
Makes 2 cups
1 pound semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup sugar
½ cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ cup Cabernet Sauvignon or other fruity red wine
- Melt the chocolate: Double boiler method: put chocolate into a glass or metal bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Stir until melted being very careful to not allow any water to get into the chocolate. Microwave method: in a glass bowl, heat the chocolate at 50% power in 1 minute bursts, stirring between bursts, until fully melted.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the cream and sugar and bring and to just a boil (bubbles around the edge of the pan), stirring to make sure sugar is fully dissolved.
- Pour sugar/cream mixture over the melted chocolate, stir slowly with a spatula to fully combine.
- Add the softened butter and slowly stir to incorporate.
- Add the wine and slowly stir to combine.
- Serve over ice cream – vanilla or chocolate are especially good – or try something else like crepes, the sauce for profiteroles or anywhere you’d use a rich chocolate sauce.
- Storage – the sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week. Rewarm gently in the microwave or in a saucepan over very low heat.
STRESSCAKE 
Delicious! Just made my first batch. Thank you for the super directions for melting the chocolate in the microwave and also the tip that boiling the cream needs to be only until you see the ring of bubbles around the edge – I always ruin cream that needs boiling. Now I have a better understanding of what to do.
Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – a pretty good Chilean wine worth holding onto a half cup for the chocolate sauce!
Yum… definitely trying this one out.