In our column Fake It or Make It we test a homemade dish against its prepackaged counterpart to find out what's really worth cooking from scratch.
Butterscotch, strawberry syrup, caramel sauce—all great ice cream toppings to be sure, but none as essential to a well-stocked sundae bar as classic, decadent hot fudge. Given that jarred versions of the stuff are widely available on supermarket shelves, is it really worth making your own from scratch? We investigate.
The Contenders
Smuckers Hot Fudge vs. *Bon Appetit'*s Hot Fudge Sauce
Hot fudge is made by boiling together cream, sugar, chocolate, and sometimes butter—the traditional ingredients for fudge—into what is essentially just an undercooked, unset version of the confection. It differs from plain old chocolate sauce by virtue of being gooier and more viscous. Information on hot fudge's history is scant, but we can make an educated guess that it came about as the result of failed fudge-making attempts, which would date its origins to late 19th Century New England.
Relative Costs
Homemade is more expensive. I paid $2.39 for a little over a cup of Smuckers, which works out to 27 cents an ounce. Ingredients for the homemade totaled $7 for a two-cup batch, or 44 cents per ounce.
Relative Healthfulness
Slight advantage to homemade. Both sauces are high in sugar and fat, of course, but the store-bought version also contains a wealth of preservatives and artificial flavor and texture enhancers.
Time Commitment
It took me 25 minutes to make hot fudge from scratch.
Leftovers Potential
Advantage store-bought. The Smuckers can be stored in the refrigerator for weeks after opening, whereas the homemade version should be kept no longer than a few days due to the fact that it contains fresh cream.
What The Testers Said
First let me introduce our panel.
THE HEALTH NUT
A delicate eater, the health nut is calorie conscious but also likes to eat well
THE FOODIE
Calorie agnostic, our foodie judge has a sophisticated palate and a love of cooking
THE DUDE
Ambivalent toward food trends and health concerns, this guy just wants to be fed when he's hungry
THE KID
Between ages of 9 and 12 years old, not jaded, typically not into strong flavors
Testers sampled both sauces blind, alone and on vanilla ice cream.
The Health Nut: Homemade; "Compared to the homemade, the store-bought tastes more like corn syrup than chocolate."
The Foodie: Homemade; "The rich chocolate flavor of the homemade is really unbeatable, plus the store-bought has a sort of off-putting, waxy mouthfeel."
The Kid: No decision; "I like it all!!!"
The Dude: Homemade; "Not only does the homemade have a way better chocolate flavor, but it clings to the ice cream better while the store-bought kind of sits in a puddle at the bottom of the bowl."
The Verdict
Make it.
You get what you pay for with hot fudge, and the high concentration of good-quality chocolate in the homemade version really comes across in terms of flavor. Testers also loved the homemade sauce for its superior texture, and (our adult participants, at least) even said they felt satisfied with a smaller quantity of the homemade fudge sauce because of its richer flavor. **
