New Go-To Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

I've tried many hot fudge sauce recipes over the years and I have even shared a few others here. But as time goes on and I try new favorites, or find something easier I love to share them with you here.

This fudge sauce is made with just six simple ingredients! And you can have it ready in about 10 minutes (just plan an extra 10 to cool if you don't want it smoldering hot).

It's richly chocolatey, perfectly sweetened, silky smooth and luscious, and it makes for the ultimate molten topping over a refreshing dessert creating a tantalizing hot and cold duo.

Possible Variations

This chocolate sauce made with pantry staples and it's a versatile recipe as well.

• You can swap bittersweet chocolate chips with semi-sweet or dark.
• Brown sugar can be replaced with white sugar.
• If you are out of vanilla you can even skip it here (there's usually some in the chocolate chips).
• Make a salted fudge sauce by increasing the amount of salt added and go for sea salt. You can even just garnish flaky salt over the fudge sauce when serving.

Then the best way to enjoy it is the traditional way, poured generously over a bowl of fresh scooped ice cream. Flavors like vanilla, strawberry, cherry, pistachio or chocolate will always complement it well.

But if you want a bit of a healthier option then drizzle a little of this chocolate fudge sauce over fresh strawberries, bananas, raspberries, mangoes or peaches to give them a decadent chocolate upgrade.

Easy Crockpot Mac and Cheese!

This is hands the absolute easiest way to make macaroni and cheese! Believe it or not, it's unbelievably creamy, no broken curdled sauce, no mushy noodles, and the taste is simply perfect.

My tricks to a good crockpot mac and cheese are to use a combination of cream, water, and evaporated milk - instead of regular or whole milk so it doesn't curdle in the cheese sauce. Then also wait until closer to the end to add the shredded cheese so that doesn't overheat and separate.

And another important key is to use a combination of cheeses for great flavor and texture. Sharp cheddar builds up the best traditional macaroni and cheese flavor, while each American cheese and Monterey Jack cheese create a velvety sauce.

The starches of cooking everything together in one pot (or slow cooker insert technically) also help create a smooth sauce.

This is a family favorite! It has a well-balanced flavor that isn't too harsh so people of all ages love it, and the cook will love the ease of preparation.

It's jam-packed flavorful goodness in every bite and undoubtedly worthy of the holidays (it's perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or potlucks), but yet simple enough for a weeknight side dish!

Watch the Video for Crock Pot Mac and Cheese!

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What is Flan?

Flan is a European and Latin dessert made up of a caramel topping and custard base that's made with milk, eggs and sweetener (which may already be included in the milk). It is usually baked in a water bath for the best texture, and after baking it is chilled then later inverted onto a platter.

This version is Flan de Queso - Cream Cheese Flan. It is easily my favorite! Traditional Spanish flan is so tasty but then when you add some rich and tangy cream cheese it becomes just that much better.

Here I've included step by step photos. This is especially helpful with the caramel step, be careful that you don't burn it. And that you work carefully and quickly.

Other than that this homemade flan is a breeze to make! And who doesn't love a recipe that only requires 6 ingredients?

What does it taste like?

Flan has a rich, toasted sugar caramel flavor from the topping and the base tastes very milky, perfectly sweet and lightly eggy. It is similar to creme brulee or panna cotta in taste, but texturally the three are quite different.

Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Tres Leches Cake has got to be one of the world's best kinds of cake! Maybe I'm just biased because I'm a huge fan of sweetened condensed milk and cream, and you get both in this cake.I love to serve it in the summer since it's a chilled and amazingly refreshing cake, but of course people will crave it year round!

It's a perfectly sweet and decadent and just amazingly satisfying. Plus this version has butter!

If you search for tres leches recipes on the web, you'll find about half contain one stick of butter the other half container no butter. Zero. Zilch. Nada. That's just offensive. I'm totally kidding, but when there's a choice I say butter all the way!

Tres Leches Video

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Butter makes everything better. It adds a wonderful richness and flavor.

This is an authentic Mexican cake that's perfect for birthdays, parties and holidays and it's just as good as what you'll get at your favorite Mexican restaurants!

Another thing you'll love about making tres leches cake at home is that it's a lot cheaper. Why pay $8 dollars a slice when you can make a full cake at home for about the same price?

I love muffins, they are like an excuse to have dessert for breakfast, right? Really I don't believe in eating muffins every morning but for special occasions (or on the weekend) they are a must!

One of the birthday traditions we've started doing in our home is piling a stack of doughnuts on a plate then lighting some candles over them and waking our kids up while singing the happy birthday song with a plate full of gleaming donuts and holding a colorful variety of birthday balloons, yeah it's like the best thing ever to wake up to :).

It instantly puts a smile on their face. I started doing that since I'm not much of a morning person and usually don't want to wake up super early to prepare an extravagant breakfast meal.

But I wouldn't mind waking up a little early to make these and swap out that doughnut tradition for a funfetti muffin one. These muffins are easy to make and they are one of those things that both adults and children alike can agree on.

Who can resist anything when it comes in funfetti form? Save this recipe for the next birthday coming up on your calendar (and you might need to do a trial run this weekend right :).

You may look at the ingredients list and directions and think, no way that's too much, but don't. If you like Snickers you've got to try these!

Everyone in my family agreed they taste just like a Snickers but with a soft and chewy brownie added in. If you bring these to a party, you'll likely find that they become the talk of the party and everyone will be wanting the recipe.

Save this recipe for your next celebration when you want to go all out or treat yourself this weekend and make a batch of these incredible Snickers Brownies.

Why are these things so incredibly good? Well, first off they are inspired by German chocolate cake, so how could they not be good? Second, they are perfectly fudgy and chewy (just how I like my brownies) and they have just the right level of chocolate intensity to be labeled as German chocolate. My first batch - waayyyy too intensely chocolatey. Good, but not meant for these. The sweet coconut-pecan topping that covers these adds amazing texture and just takes brownies to the next level. Once you make them this way your basic, topping free brownies may start to seem rather boring.

It took several attempts to get a homemade version that is like a Krispy Kreme. As the saying goes, third times the charm. I tried three different types of flour, bread flour first then blend of cake and all purpose flour and I ended up settling on just all purpose.

It's hard to get the exact same texture as theirs because according to the ingredients they have listed online they use emulsifiers, gluten, thickener, firming agents and other additives, which I'm guessing is what gives their doughnuts such a delicate texture.

For us home cooks, are we ever going to try and track down all that stuff? With that said these doughnuts are very close, just not identical. Also, my version isn't as pretty :).

The dough is somewhat delicate to work with after the second rise so they didn't keep their shape perfectly well once I lifted them to transfer to the oil. If only I had one of those conveyer belts like they have at Krispy Kreme.

My family and I did a side by side comparison with my version and theirs and both flavor and texture were so close.

If you like a thick coating of glaze, you can make more glaze and double dip them. This recipe could easily be doubled for feeding a crowd.

When you eat one of these warm, that perfectly golden, glaze covered edge and fluffy interior just melt away in your mouth.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Soup doesn't get much easier than making it in the slow cooker, does it? And here we have one of the ultimate comfort food soups made in the slow cooker. I've already posted four slow cooker soup recipes this season and they're quickly becoming my favorite way to make soup so I figured I may as well post another.

Potato soup is definitely one of my favorite soups. I make it probably two or three times a month, especially during the winter.

I never should have done this. I have a major weakness for fudge because it consists of two of my favorite things, chocolate and sugar. So here I sit eating fudge for breakfast at 7:30 in the morning. Where's my self-control, people? I'll admit I don't have much when it comes to this stuff, which is why I usually only make it around the holidays. I love that my two-year-old keeps calling it "pudge." I keep correcting her but it's a nice reminder that I shouldn't eat the whole batch :).

Easy Chocolate Fudge Recipe

Whenever I think of homemade chocolate fudge, I think of not only how much I love it, but of course of the movie Grinch when all of the Who's are stuffing the Grinch's face with fudge ("Is that all you've got? Is that all you've got!?"). How I wish that were me sampling every variety of fudge. I would also love to have one of those hideous light-up Christmas sweaters to wear while I'm enjoying my fudge this time of year.