Eat First

From the Recipe Vault: Yolanda Wright's Hot Fudge Sauce

A "Recipe of the Day" in my inbox this morning promotes a 90-calorie chocolate sauce/fondue. "By choosing a darker chocolate and fat-free evaporated milk, we've cut the calories of this chocolate dip in half!,'' the pitch reads.

 

No, thanks. I'd rather indulge and make Yolanda Wright's rich, buttery, Hot Fudge Sauce -- and risk the calories and repercussions.

Yolanda Wright is the former restaurant reviewer for The Post-Standard (and The Herald-Journal, before that). During her tenure (1983-2010), she also wrote the monthly "Yolanda's Kitchen'' feature for both newspapers, cooking for days and creating the kind of elaborate feasts and meticulously styled spreads that you don't see often in newspapers these days.

 

I miss collaborating with her. And when I rifle through my recipe file, I find a lot of Yolanda's recipes in there.

 

The Hot Fudge Sauce recipe is one of my most treasured -- and requested. I make it a couple times a year -- Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthdays -- mostly for gift giving. Some recipients use it for sundaes, or as a dipping sauce for strawberries, apples and pears. Others say they like it straight off the spoon!

 

This sweetheart of a recipe is easily doubled. It keeps for two months in the refrigerator, but the longest it has ever lasted here is two weeks. Reheat the sauce gently in the microwave or place a jar in a shallow water bath on the stove and reheat it that way.

 

Enjoy. And Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Yolanda Wright's Hot Fudge Sauce

 

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder (optional)

3/4 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons Kahlua (optional but recommended)

 

Melt chocolate and butter over medium heat. Remove from heat and blend in cocoa until mixture is very smooth.

 

In a somewhat deep, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, bring cream, sugar, corn syrup and salt to a rolling boil. The mixture will bubble up, which is why you want to use a somewhat deep pan. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate mixture, vanilla extract and Kahlua.

 

Cool mixture for about 15 minutes and pour into a jar or jars. The fudge sauce will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator. Makes about 1.5 cups.

 

Note: Reheat the sauce gently in the microwave, on a low setting, or reheat on the stove. Place the jar in a pan filled with an inch or two of water. Reheat slowly, over low heat. Take care not to get water in the sauce, the chocolate will seize up. 

 

Not quite bread, not quite rolls: Popovers

Bread: It's the staff of life. But I wanted something a little out of the ordinary to go with our Roasted Squash Soup.

Organic multi-grain baguette? Nope. Cornbread? Not the right partner. Homemade yeast bread? That would be lovely, but not on a weeknight. Popovers? Yesssss! Into the Recipe Vault we go.

There’s something old-fashioned and comforting about popovers.

In the realm of breads, popovers are peculiar: brown and crisp on the outside, moist and eggy on the inside. Think of them as hollow, free-form rolls. As their name suggests, they "pop over'' the pan they're baked in and tend not to stand upright without toppling over.

Anyone who has dined at the Lincklaen House in Cazenovia has feasted on their signature popovers, baked fresh and served warm, with honey butter on the side.

My Aunt Dorothy (Sarvay), who lives in Cortland and has made many pans of popovers in her life, gave me her recipe some years back. The typewritten paper stapled to a recipe card is a treasure in itself, with its instructions to start with a COLD OVEN and DON'T PEEK for the duration of baking, no matter how tempted you might be to open the oven door. Somewhere along the line, at our house, no doubt, the recipe card came into contact with a splash of coffee or tea, from the looks of it.

The recipe calls for four simple ingredients -- flour, eggs, milk and salt. No special gear is required, just a muffin tin or custard cups.

The finished product is impressive. Give popovers a try when you're looking to serve something special, without a major time investment.

NO-BEAT POPOVERS 

(Makes 6 large popovers)

Recipe from Dorothy Sarvay

2 eggs (room temperature)

1 cup whole milk (room temperature)

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Generously grease or butter a muffin tin (six compartments).

Break eggs into bowl and add milk. Blend lightly. Add flour and salt, sifted together, and stir to combine. Batter will be thin and have lumps. Spoon batter into six muffin cups. They should be three-quarters full.

THE SECRET -- start with a COLD OVEN. Set oven to 450 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Popovers will be brown on the outside and will collapse slightly when removed from the oven. Serve with butter. Leftovers (if there are any) can be reheated in a low oven until hot. Enjoy for breakfast with honey butter or butter and jam.