Rudy's Hot Fudge

This is a much beloved sauce for ice cream on hot steamy evenings on Lake Michigan. Ruth de Jong, the matriarch of the family, made this sauce for years and years and her daughters have now taken up the task. This recipe will become part of the New Era Cottage Cookbook.

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and cocoa.
2. Return to heat and slowly add evaporated milk, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to boil and stir for 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Sauce will be quite thin but will set a little as it cools.

Katharine’s notes:

• You can also use 1½ cups heavy cream if you’d like instead of the evaporated milk.
• I added ¼ teaspoon salt because I think sweet things are always helped by a bit of it. There is a physiological reason for that, but we don’t need to go into it here.

Makes about 2 cups
Created by Ruth and made at the cottage numerous times