Malted Milk Chocolate Sauce

Last night I fixed Shane the bowl of ice cream above as the snow was coming down.  In October.  We eat ice cream all winter long, so not exactly a big deal, but in October we expect to be visiting our local ice cream shop for the last time, enjoying a cone on the picnic bench outside on a crisp fall night.  Instead, we were inside watching the flakes fall and listening to the wind howl, hoping that the trees and their branches, still holding onto most of their leaves at this point, would be able to bear the weight of the snow and not come crashing down on our cars, the fence or our house.

The weather this year has been completely insane; while we’ve had snow in October before, it’s always been a light dusting and never a major storm.  When we woke up today, we found 4-5 inches of snow had fallen overnight.  This is what October 30 looks like in northern RI.   

(This was the tree that had me losing sleep last night, its branches don’t normally hang anywhere near that low to the ground.)

The sun is out now and the skies are blue, so hopefully the snow will melt quickly and we’ll get back to autumn before winter arrives for good.

This malted milk chocolate sauce was another recipe I flagged when I was going through my period of obsession with malted milk powder.  Unlike the other recipes I made which used plain powder, this one called for chocolate malt powder.  It gives the thick, rich sauce that classic soda shop malt flavor.  Shane’s a big fan of Hershey’s chocolate syrup on top of his ice cream, so he was all for this homemade upgrade.  I rarely make chocolate sauce at home, but it’s so easy there’s really no excuse.  Plus it keeps in the fridge for nearly a week, and you don’t have to limit yourself to ice cream – this would be awesome drizzled over just about any dessert!

Malted Milk Chocolate Sauce
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup chocolate malt Ovaltine
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 oz milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the heavy cream, corn syrup, Ovaltine, brown sugar, salt and 4 oz of the milk chocolate to a medium saucepan. Set over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to melt the chocolate and ensure the sauce is smooth. Reduce the heat so the sauce just simmers and cook for 5 minutes, frequently stirring very slowly.

Turn off the heat under the pan and add the remaining 2 oz of chocolate, butter and vanilla. Stir until incorporated. Allow the sauce to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving, or cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove over low heat.

Makes 2 cups