Chocolate Sauce Recipe (2024)

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This 4-ingredient Chocolate Sauce Recipe is the perfect topping for cake, ice cream, hot chocolate, or any homemade dessert. It’s glossy and luscious, easy to make, and delicious to eat!

A good homemade Chocolate Sauce can take desserts and drinks over the top. It’s delicious on ice cream (or on ice cream on Brownies), of course, but it’s also amazing on lightly sweetened desserts like Pound Cake, Vanilla Cheesecake, and Hot Milk Cake.

Use Chocolate Sauce in a variety of co*cktails, too, like a Mudslide, S’mores Chocolate Martini, or an Espresso Martini. And old-fashioned Hot Chocolate doesn’t mind a drizzle for extra chocolate flavor, either.

To take a page out of the 80’s, try Chocolate Sauce on cereal (especially Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes), dip it with graham crackers, drizzle it over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or mix into your next glass of chocolate milk.

Recipe ingredients

Ingredient notes

• Butter: I tend to keep salted butter on hand (and I prefer the taste) so that’s what I use here, but unsalted butter is fine too.
• Corn syrup: Corn syrup adds viscosity, sweetness, and shine to the somewhat matte, bitter chocolate. It helps to “gloss the sauce.” You may also substitute maple syrup (it will change the flavor). Note, corn syrup is not the same as high fructose corn syrup.
• Chocolate: Chocolate baking bars are the best option because chocolate chips contain stabilizers to hold their shape. They also do not have as much cocoa butter, therefore the sauce will not be as luscious and smooth. However, if chocolate chips are all you have on hand, you would need 1 ½ cups chocolate chips to equal 8 ounces of baking chocolate.

Step-by-step instructions

1. In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add cream and corn syrup and bring mixture to a boil.

2. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate, and cover for 5 minutes.

3. Whisk until chocolate is smooth.

Recipe tips and variations

• Yield: This recipe makes about 2 cups of chocolate sauce.
• Storage: Store leftover Chocolate Sauce in an airtight container or jar with a lid in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat in a bowl in the microwave for a few seconds or on the stove in a small saucepan over medium-low heat before serving.
• Make ahead: The Chocolate Sauce can be made up to 3 days in advance.
• Chocolate Fondue: Leave out the butter and the corn syrup, add a splash of vanilla, and you’ve got a tasty Chocolate Fondue for dipping almost any treat under the sun.
• Flavors: Try adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract, which gives the sauce that bit of sweetness you just can’t get from sugar. A pinch of salt also accentuates the sweetness of the chocolate. If you’re really feeling fancy, a splash of Cointreau will do just the trick as the subtle hint of orange pairs perfectly with the taste of the chocolate.