JoAnne Smith of Brigham City, Utah, shared this cherished hot fudge sauce recipe in honor of her late husband, Ray. Between raising seven children, tending to horses, and supporting Ray’s impressive career in aerospace engineering, JoAnne always made room for sweet traditions. Her piano students knew that recital days meant one special treat—hot fudge sundaes crowned with this rich, velvety sauce. Today, we’re grateful to share that tradition with you through a recipe that’s every bit as timeless as the memories it helped create.
Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 squares Unsweetened Chocolate
- 1-¾ cups Light Cream or 1 can Evaporated Milk
- 1 cup Sugar
- ¼ cup + ¼ tsp. Salt
- 1 Tbs. Butter or Margarine
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
Directions:
- Melt chocolate and light cream or evaporated milk in a double boiler.
- Combine sugar and salt.
- Add enough of the heated milk/chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture to make a smooth paste, then pour it back into the rest of the chocolate mixture. Stir and cook until thick and smooth (It will be thicker when it cools).
- Stir in butter or margarine and vanilla.
- Serve warm or chilled.
Use for a ice cream topping and add whipped cream, slivered almonds and a cherry on top for perfect hot fudge sundaes.
JoAnne’s Famous Hot Fudge Sauce: A Sweet Tradition
To honor her late husband, Ray, JoAnne Smith of Brigham City, Utah, offered the following family memories associated with Intermountain Farmers Association.
Gibson Ray Smith was born in Ogden on Nov. 16, 1931. He served in the Navy during the Korean War, earned an engineering degree from Brigham Young University and worked for Morton Thiokol for 38 years, ending as the director of casting and mixing.
“If you can imagine the progress that’s occurred in my lifetime – on the one hand my grandmother walked across the plains as a pioneer and on the other hand, my husband helped build rocket engines that sent men into space,” JoAnne said. “It’s amazing to me how the world has changed.”
In the midst of raising seven children born in less than nine years, Ray and JoAnne also raised horses.
“He bought his first horses in 1963 and bought 15 acres in Brigham City as soon as he could,” she said. “He built corrals, barns and perfectly straight fences. He was so proud to breed his registered quarter horses and knew their genealogy better than our own.”
JoAnne said they were loyal IFA customers of both the Logan and Ogden IFA Country Stores, and she hinted that they might have bought as much bird seed as horse feed and tack.
“Oh how I love to sit at my dining room window and watch all the different birds that come to my feeders,” she said. “With the bird refuge nearby and our neighbor’s pond, we get so many colorful birds coming to our area – finches, red-winged black birds, buntings, sparrows, morning doves, orioles, cranes and hawks. They’re all so pretty and their colors are gorgeous.”
The Smiths’ love of horses and wildlife has been passed on to their children and grandchildren. Their daughter, Annette Randall, is an accomplished artist and specializes in western scenes. JoAnne also made sure they were trained musically. She taught piano lessons for decades and always served hot fudge sundaes at her recitals.
From the kitchen of JoAnne Smith. Submitted by JoAnne Smith and originally published in the IFA Cooperator magazine (vol. 83, no. 1) Spring 2017.