Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce from the Occidental Hotel

One of the zillion things I love to collect is paper ephemera.  That's a fancy word for collectible memorabilia that was for a short term purpose.  Ticket stubs, post cards, newspaper articles.  I really don't collect recent ones as much as I love to prowl antique stores and estate sales for little historical things that catch my eye.  There's not really a theme, just little advertising images or blurbs that were once tossed aside but now seem historically interesting to me.  So when I saw this cute little newspaper article including a hot fudge recipe I immediately had to try it.  In true historical fashion, I had to do a little research on the Occidental Hotel.  It was originally built int 1864 in Muskegon, Michigan as the Hamilton House Hotel.  It reopened as The Occidental in 1868 and enjoyed many decades, even experiencing a devastating fire in 1936.  It finally closed the doors in 1970, making way for the Muskegon Mall.  But back in the glory days, apparently Betty and her friends that worked at Sears nearby were onto something because the hot fudge sauce is amazing.  I'm ashamed to admit how many nights in a row we ate hot fudge sundaes.  With Valentine's Day coming up, this is the perfectly classic ending to a Valentine's Day meal.  Enjoy with someone you love!

This sauce is so thick, rich and luxurious.
Be sure and use quality cocoa powder,
whole milk, real butter and quality vanilla
to get the full experience.

Here is the original newspaper clipping
that caught my eye and inspired me to
make this recipe.

Aren't these just the cutest little Valentine's Day Desserts?
A Classic Hot Fudge Sundae with
Homemade (Historic) Hot Fudge Sauce

Be generous with the Hot Fudge Sauce and
Whipped Cream.  You only live once!

This is soooo good.  We ate sundaes for a week.
We have the scale to prove it.

Using quality ingredients in the sauce makes
all the difference.  Using homemade whipped
cream and splurging for these cherries will too.
The Merry Marachino Cherries from Tillen Farms are the best cherries ever.

Here are a few of the little paper ephemera
things I have collected over the years.
Sometimes I change it around for the holidays
with things like vintage Valentines.

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce from the Occidental Hotel

2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup cocoa (I used dutch-processed)
6 tablespoons flour (I used gluten-free flour blend with great results but feel free to use all purpose)
1 teaspoon salt (I used Diamond Kosher)
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whisk together the dry ingredients (sugar, cocoa, flour and salt) in a saucepan.  Place over medium-low heat stirring in the milk and cubed butter.  Stir constantly until combined and thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Store in refrigerator.  To reheat, place in a microwave-safe container and heat for 20 seconds at a time, stirring well in between until hot.

NOTE:  I varied a little from the instructions when I made this.  The clipping wasn't entirely clear when to add the butter or vanilla so I added ingredients according to similar recipes with great results.

Prep Time:  Approximately 5 minutes     Cook Time:  Approximately 25 minutes