Orange-Chocolate Ice Cream Sauce

Lennie's Note:

This is sublime, and always a hit with dinner guests. To cut down the fat/calories, use water instead of milk, and eliminate the chopped chocolate. Warning: it won't be as rich or as luscious if you do this! After you dish out the ice cream and pour on the sauce, I also suggest adding some freshly grated orange zest on top. Your guests will love it!

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1.333 cups

• ¾ cup white sugar
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ cup milk (use water if you want to cut down the dairy and/or the calories)
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate or 2 ounces semisweet chocolate , coarsely chopped
• 1⁄3; cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine sugar and cocoa, then whisk in milk, then chopped chocolate.
2. Turn heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly, for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in remaining ingredients until sauce is smooth.
4. Serve either chilled or warmed, over vanilla ice cream.
5. Store in the fridge, but this sauce will keep well in the freezer if your batch won't be gone within a week or two.

Reviews

[Mirj]

Sublime does not even begin to describe this sauce. I like to serve it over a chocolate brownie topped with orange/vanilla ice cream. I use 1% soy milk and non-dairy dark chocolate. I usually have this at room temperature and it really pulls the chocolate of the brownie and the orange in the ice cream together. This makes just enough to serve about 5 greedy people, so when I have guests I usually triple the batch. If you don't have orange liqueur then orange extract and some very finely grated orange zest works as well, if not better! Thanks Lennie, you've upped my reputation another notch with this one!

[mickie49]

Lennie-all I can say is THANK YOU!!! This was the hit of our Valentine supper! I used Niagara Chocolates bittersweet chocolate, orange extract, the zest of a large orange and heavy cream! Absolutely wonderful! It was all I could do to wait until after supper to get into this! I swear I could have put it on the napkins and it still would have been heavenly! Thank you so much, Lennie, this is gonna be my signature dessert sauce from now on-delicious, easy and did I say delicious?

[highcotton]

One more vote for "sublime"! Besides the heavenly taste, the texture is velvety, and it's absurdly quick and easy to make. Couldn't resist licking the spoon after scraping the leftover sauce into a storage container. The flavors had definitely intensified. Next time, I'm going to make it several hours in advance instead of just before dinner. Fabulous recipe, Lennie!