John Gregg's Chocolate Sauce


4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, broken up (I use Ghirardelli)
1 tbs. butter
1.5 cups sugar
a pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream (I use organic, because it is the only
heavy cream I can find without artificial thickeners. Check the
ingredients list)
1/4 cup good sherry or Chambord
1 tbs vanilla

Over very low heat (preferably a double boiler) melt the butter, then
add the chocolate and melt that. Turn up the heat (not too much!)
and add the sugar, salt and the heavy cream. Bring mixture to a boil,
stirring constantly. Don't get impatient - I have found that the
longer it takes to boil, the smoother the end result. Reduce heat
and boil slowly, without stirring, for 7 minutes. Remove from heat
and stir in the sherry or Chambord and the vanilla. Allow to cool
and store in the refrigerator; microwave to render it pourable.

The original recipe called for sherry. It is the secret ingredient
that really makes this sauce. It is hard to pick out the sherry
taste, but the sauce is a lot better after you add it. I don't
usually like other flavors in my chocolate, but the Chambord works
very well also. And once, on my mother's suggestion, I skipped the
alcohol and put in a pinch or two of instant coffee powder, and
that was really good too.

This recipe appears in "Beat This!" by Ann Hodgman.