Solace

Sometimes (perhaps after a hard week around grant app time) you just need chocolate sauce. This makes a thick, glossy sauce, with very deep flavour. Like a sundae from the Harris Quick & Tasty, only not the actual sundae, the one in a dream ten years later.

HOT FUDGE SAUCE

2/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring cream, corn syrup, sugar, cocoa, salt, and half of chocolate to a boil in a 1 to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until chocolate is melted. Reduce heat and cook at a low boil, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and remaining chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool sauce to warm before serving.
Makes about 2 cups.

You can make it a week ahead, cool completely, then chill in an airtight container or jar. Reheat before using.

(But don't do what we did: at Ian and Kanchan's house I handed the jar to their daughter Nisha and Rachel, saying 'pop this into a bowl of warm water to heat it up,' and then by some graceful accident happened to wander into the kitchen as they were pouring the thick chocolate sauce out of the jar into the warm water. It worked out all right, we just poured the water off into the sink and the sauce was hardly any thinner, and still gorgeous.)