Today is kind of like a rerun  but not quite – it seemed like a good time to redo my favorite holiday gift recipes, Hot Fudge Sauce and Honey Caramel Sauce as both make excellent gifts.  To make it easier, here is the giant size hot fudge recipe.

The ingredient measurements for the holiday gift giving (10 pints) are:

6 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups butter

1 cup light corn syrup

4 cups sugar

1 cup water

4 1/2 lbs (72 oz) good quality chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate.   Nestles works fine and I use it sometimes for the big batches, but the better the chocolate the better the results

3 Tbs vanilla

Other than the ingredients, the big difference between this and a small batch is that because of the volume, it will take much longer for the sugar to caramelize, maybe up to 1/2 hour so don’t be discouraged that it doesn’t happen right away.

1   Combine cream, butter and salt in microwave safe bowl with a spout and heat until butter melts (approx. 2 minutes). Place the chocolate in a large heat proof bowl, a metal mixing bowl works really well.

2   In large sauce pan over medium heat, cook the sugar, corn syrup and water stirring until the sugar dissolves.

3  Increase the heat and bring to a full rolling boil then cook until a dark amber color, up to 30 minutes.  Swirl the pan a little if you must, but don’t stir or it may crystalize. Watch very carefully towards the end because the sugar can go from perfect to burnt in a few seconds.

4   Take the pan off the heat and slowly, very, very slowly, add the warm cream into the sugar, stirring briskly.  As the cream starts to cool the sugar, you can begin to pour more quickly.  This really works best with two people, one to pour (barely a drizzle at first) and one to stir.  When the cream hits the hot caramelized sugar, it will bubble up and steam so watch your hands and if you don’t pour slowly and stir quickly, you’ll get lumps.  If you were making caramel, you would stop here.

5     Pour the hot caramel mixture over the chocolate and mix until smooth.  I pour through a strainer to catch any small lumps of caramel that may have formed.