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Amy C
This comment chain is one of the more ridiculous I've read at the Times to date. Remind me not to invite many in this group to the party. Talk about buzz-kill! Luxurious and rich desserts such as this one are a once-in-a-while treat, and I would have thought that this went without saying. If you regularly obsess over calorie counts and timing workouts to your intake, why would you even open this recipe? I thought this venue was for shared cooking and prep tips.
jeffrey turner
Nancy, with all due respect, you are not an ice cream person and you're probably not even a dessert person! You can't go lo-cal for any dessert.
Julie
This article, besides making my mouth water, took me on a Proustian journey to my earliest tastes of sundaes. My mother had a favorite, from the old Brigham's in Boston (in its heyday back in the 50's and 60's and earlier). It was Brigham's coffee ice cream, topped with their incredible hot fudge sauce and then sprinkled with toasted, salted pecans. My mother was not one for whipped cream or cherries, so that was how we ordered it.
Buddy
Calories scmalories. Who cares when the time comes to reallly indulge in something fabulous? As I recall this recipe was from an article about a tiny wedding reception and the sundae was a stand in for a wedding cake. I have not tasted many delicious wedding cakes but, god knows, I've never had a sundae that disappointed.
Cynthia
When I was pregnant with my son Adam who is now 50, I used to go to Schrafts on Madison Ave .I sat at the counter and ordered a hot fudge sundae with vanilla and coffee ice cream , nuts and whipped cream , no cherry!
Hanna
Chips have additives that help them keep their shape when baked into cookies, so they don't fully melt. For sauces and baked goods where you want the chocolate to melt smoothly, bar form is better. Of course, it's not a big deal, if all I have is chips, I use them!
Anne
That's OK. You don't have to make it. There are so many of us who will, and we will enjoy our glorious high calorie indulgent tasty treat. Yum yum.
dimmerswitch
Re Amy's comment "...there is absolutely no reason to add corn syrup to a ganache." Actually, there is. Not that I'd argue with Dorie Greenspan on anything, including her addition of corn syrup here, but there IS a science to support this as well. Corn syrup, an invert sugar, prevents sugar crystals from forming. So in a liquid ganache, like this, it helps keep the fudge sauce smooth. It also adds a gloss quality.
Barbara Marmor
The calorie count is huge because the portion size is huge. A quart of ice cream, as called for here, could easily make 16 modest servings or eight large servings. Instead, this recipe identifies itself as four servings.
India
Love the idea of the salt with chocolate pieces! But my all-time favorite sundae is the Caramel Newport sundae at Crown Candy Kitchen in St Louis. There is always a shaker of nutmeg on the table and a shake of this on top takes the sundae to a whole new level. Utter bliss!
Susan FitzGibbon
The salted chocolate morsels sound wonderful. A personal favorite trick of mine is to blend dark hot fudge sauce with marshmallow sauce (both homemade from recipes that ran in the times about two decades ago) and pour over Dorrie's choice of coffee and vanilla ice cream, chosen because neither is too sweet. Oh, decadence thy name is sundae!
Judy
We had this for dessert at a small dinner party. Outstanding. It also serves at least 10 people. 2 of us had seconds & we had probably 3/4 of the sauce, chocolate bits & almonds left. (We skipped whipped cream.) Trust me, I can eat more ice cream sundae than most people & this recipe will leave lots leftover. That being said, I'd definitely make it again. Note that we used a carton of Edy's vanilla so that the ice cream wasn't so rich that it filled us up prematurely.
Anne
A proper hot fudge sundae is any hot fudge sundae that is within 4 inches of my mouth. Get into my tummy, hot fudge sundae!!!
AMR
Sorry to confirm the worst, but it is in fact 1129 calories per serving (or 4500 calories for the whole recipe), not 280 calories per serving as Edward says. I suspect one could cut portion the portion size and not use all the chocolate bits and chocolate sauce. I love ice cream and dessert, but there is no day in which I would eat a 1000+ calorie dessert!
Edward
280 calories is hardly a lot for a dessert; pretty low, really. Of course it's mostly empty calories (i.e. sugar), but that's kinda the point. Eat it on your hi-cal cheat day soon after a hard session with heavy weights. It'll send your metabolism sky high, and the calories will disappear into the ether.
Jane
This is an EXCELLENT easy chocolate sauce, the only one any of us need. Thank you, Ms. Greenspan.
Lynne
I had one Lindt 90% chocolate bar. Chopped it up, put in saucepan with a tablespoon or so of maple syrup and half a cup of half and half whisked with some cornstarch to thicken. It was amazingly delicious over vanilla ice cream with some walnuts. Now that I know how easy it is to make hot fudge, I’m in big trouble.
janina
How easy is this fudge sauce! So delicious. And the calories? My heavens don’t serve this if that is your mind set. Continue with low fat unflavored yogurt for dessert, Don’t overdue!
Dosi
Delicious.
dimmerswitch
Splendiferous enough to be a special occasion dessert, we served this as finale for Christmas Eve dinner. Making the hot fudge sauce and chocolate bits is a snap. Both can be done a day head for easy service day of. The salted chocolate bits are scrumptious - used fleur de sel. We had quite a bit of bits leftover - which is a good thing as an encore performance of the sundaes has been requested. Any day can be a special occasion if these are on the menu.
dimmerswitch
Re Amy's comment "...there is absolutely no reason to add corn syrup to a ganache." Actually, there is. Not that I'd argue with Dorie Greenspan on anything, including her addition of corn syrup here, but there IS a science to support this as well. Corn syrup, an invert sugar, prevents sugar crystals from forming. So in a liquid ganache, like this, it helps keep the fudge sauce smooth. It also adds a gloss quality.
Beth
Not comfortable pouring hot chocolate on plastic even if microwave safe
Judy
We had this for dessert at a small dinner party. Outstanding. It also serves at least 10 people. 2 of us had seconds & we had probably 3/4 of the sauce, chocolate bits & almonds left. (We skipped whipped cream.) Trust me, I can eat more ice cream sundae than most people & this recipe will leave lots leftover. That being said, I'd definitely make it again. Note that we used a carton of Edy's vanilla so that the ice cream wasn't so rich that it filled us up prematurely.
Buddy
Calories scmalories. Who cares when the time comes to reallly indulge in something fabulous? As I recall this recipe was from an article about a tiny wedding reception and the sundae was a stand in for a wedding cake. I have not tasted many delicious wedding cakes but, god knows, I've never had a sundae that disappointed.
Anne
You are so right!
Amy C
This comment chain is one of the more ridiculous I've read at the Times to date. Remind me not to invite many in this group to the party. Talk about buzz-kill! Luxurious and rich desserts such as this one are a once-in-a-while treat, and I would have thought that this went without saying. If you regularly obsess over calorie counts and timing workouts to your intake, why would you even open this recipe? I thought this venue was for shared cooking and prep tips.
Putney foodie
Ate my way through pregnancy on Bailey's sundaes in Boston. This looks scrumptious but was surprised to see the corn syrup. Can you leave it out or substitute something less offensive?
Celia Regan
This kind of corn syrup is not "high fructose corn syrup" - no worries on that score. It's the basis of things like pecan pie and other delicious things, extremely valuable in buttercream icings, etc.
Amy
There is absolutely no reason to add corn syrup to a ganache. High quality chocolate and cream. That is all you need. If the proportions are correct, it will pour beautifully and look luscious. And, even though they call this a "sauce" there's no reason to add it. It's correct that it's not "high fructose corn syrup," but I find its addition gratuitous. Especially because it calls for sugar as well.
Susan FitzGibbon
The salted chocolate morsels sound wonderful. A personal favorite trick of mine is to blend dark hot fudge sauce with marshmallow sauce (both homemade from recipes that ran in the times about two decades ago) and pour over Dorrie's choice of coffee and vanilla ice cream, chosen because neither is too sweet. Oh, decadence thy name is sundae!
Elisabeth
I'm an ice cream person, I owned an ice cream shop and know how to scoop layering ice cream with air. I know a proper hot fudge sundae has finest vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, toasted pecans and hot fudge sauce. That's all. I find your memory of Rumplemeyer's questionable so here's how it was: ice cream, whipped cream and nuts with the hot fudge in a sauce boat, on the side. You added it as you ate the other ingredients. It was not served with hot fudge on top.
Liz
She says, "sharing a hot-fudge sundae generously crowned with whipped cream." She doesn't say hot fudge on top.
Anne
A proper hot fudge sundae is any hot fudge sundae that is within 4 inches of my mouth. Get into my tummy, hot fudge sundae!!!
GC
This sounds very good! As a summer choice, there is an ice cream shop called Four Seas in Centerville, MA, on Cape Cod, that serves the most wonderful ice cream! Highly recommend! Enjoy!
Elisabeth
Their coconut ice cream with hot fudge is amazing; eating it standing in the parking lot, on a cool summer evening, makes it all the better.
Karen
OK, so a question. Why "not chips"? Surely a good quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate in chip form would be just fine, no?
Hanna
Chips have additives that help them keep their shape when baked into cookies, so they don't fully melt. For sauces and baked goods where you want the chocolate to melt smoothly, bar form is better. Of course, it's not a big deal, if all I have is chips, I use them!
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