Until 2009, Herrell’s Ice Cream sat at the corner of Dunster Street and Mass Ave. in Cambridge. The ice cream there was good, and the hot fudge was better. Almost every day of college, I walked to Herrell’s in the afternoon, and I ordered a cup of Cookies ‘n Cream with Hot Fudge Sauce. I thought this was decadent-ice cream with hot fudge, every day! Until one day, when I stood in line behind a couple who placed an order ten times more decadent than my wildest ice cream dreams.
They each ordered a medium ice cream, in a cup. I don’t remember the flavors because of the shocker that came next. To drink, they asked for milkshakes. Milkshakes to wash down their ice cream! More ice cream to quench the post-ice cream thirst! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before. Not that I’d do such a thing. I like water with my ice cream and hot fudge with my milkshakes.
See, back before Herrell’s trained me to eat ice cream every day, I ate ice cream once a week, on Wednesdays. This was at camp, and Wednesdays were trip days. On the way back from the mountains, the waterfalls, or the freezing cold beaches of Maine, we stopped at a joint for ice cream. Normally, we went to local, homemade-type places and ordered flavors like Moosetracks, but once we went to a Dairy Queen.
At the Dairy Queen, I ordered a Hot Fudge Milkshake. Though the shake was cold, each slurp tasted of hot fudge. Not like chocolate sauce, and not chocolate ice cream. This had a butteriness like no chocolate sauce or chocolate milkshake before it. It tasted like vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce, blended.
That’s just what it is. In honor of camp and Wednesday ice cream and Dairy Queens and milkshakes, today I made you this Hot Fudge Milkshake number. I blended together a sundae in a glass. Sip it beside a cup of ice cream-if you’re crazy enough to dare.
**Recipe**
Hot Fudge Milkshake
Serves 1
Ingredients
4 scoops vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup milk
3-4 tablespoons Hot Fudge Sauce (recipe follows)
Pinch of salt
Chocolate shavings and/or chopped peanuts for garnish
Soften the ice cream for at least 5 minutes. You want it to be closer to the texture of soft ice cream than hard-but not melty. Combine all ingredients in a blender. Pulse until the hot fudge is completely combined with the ice cream.
Hot Fudge
from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts
Ingredients
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sweet butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
Heat cream and butter over moderate heat until the butter has melted and the cream just comes to a low boil. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved, testing with your finger to see if you can feel the granules.
Reduce the heat and add the salt and cocoa powder, then stir them in with a whisk. Break up any lumps with a spoon.
Remove from the heat and scrape
Remove from heat and serve immediately. You may also store any leftovers in the refrigerator and reheat slowly in the top of a double boiler. The hot fudge sauce will become too thick to spoon out after refrigeration, so you should place the jar or glass storage dish in a bowl of hot water until enough melts to pour out.
