Mimi's Fudge Sauce

I've been quiet here for several years. Maybe with my big move I'll be more inspired to post again. 

Of course the biggest utility of this blog is giving me a place to find my key recipes. I was at Dad's house last week and I didn't have the fudge sauce recipe. My made up approximation was good, but I don't want to be stuck again. Maybe you will enjoy it too! 

This is the fudge sauce recipe I learned working at Mimi's Cafe in Halfway, circa 2009. It is made with cream, butter, and cocoa powder. This sauce is stiff in the refrigerator and a thick liquid when warm. The original recipe was called something like La Brea fudge sauce (if I remember correctly over 17 years!). It stiffens but never gets hard on ice cream. My favorite way to make it is with half-and-half really good Dutch process cocoa and half natural process cocoa. I made this batch with Cacao Barry Extra Brute and Hershey's natural cocoa powder. You can make it with any type of good cocoa powder with slightly different and always delicious results. The below size is actually a double batch. You can also make a smaller batch cutting all of the below sizes in half. My favorite reduced sugar version is slightly bitter and extra delicious on vanilla ice cream. 

Mimi's Fudge Sauce

1 c cream
6 T butter
1/3 c white sugar (original recipe was 2/3 c white sugar, make it either way)
2/3 c brown sugar
1 c cocoa powder, at least half Dutch process
dash salt
1 t vanilla extract 

Sift cocoa powder to remove lumps. Set aside. 

Bring cream and butter just to a boil. Add sugars and salt and stir until completely smooth. 

Add cocoa powder and whisk smooth. I usually use the immersion blender to get all of the lumps out. Add vanilla extra and mix thoroughly. Pour into clean, wide mouth jar or other glass container. Thin with drops of water if too thick when reheated. Will keep in the refrigerator for more than a month but you will eat it first.  

Sifted cocoa powder

Heating the cream and butter

Stirring in the sugars

Finished fudge sauce

Iago had a good day on the couch too. 

The first cicada

 At least this is the first one I have spotted on May 16. Based on the shed exoskeletons there are more hiding nearby. The cool spring has slowed the emergence of Brood X so I haven’t heard them yet  

And this one hasn’t shed its larval shell either. 

January 2021 in DC

A photo essay of sorts... January 1 to January 18

January 1

January 6

Motorcade on Delaware Ave

January 7

January 9

Hope in graffiti 

Finding a tranquil image

Rosslyn at sunset

January 11 

These shoes have run 1000 miles

These feet have run a lot more than that

January 12

Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane on the way home from my dentist

January 13

Fences

January 16

Checkpoints around the Tidal Basin

January 17: More fences

Vehicle checks in front of HUD

National Guard everywhere

January 18: Escape to the Anacostia Trail

That's a lot of ambulances

It is interesting to watch the new bridge go up

Reviewing these pictures makes me sad. I want my city back. Running on the Mall is a constant joy and these insurrectionists have stolen it from me and so many others.