Operator error

Okay, so my mom makes the most amazing homemade hot fudge sauce for hot fudge sundaes. If you've been around my parents for any extended period of time, you've surely had it at least one --- it is a frequently requested dessert.

So many, many months back, I decided to make it myself. I pulled out her recipe, got it going... noticed it looked a little gritty, but figured it would even itself out - which it never did. I was so mad - I figured I just didn't boil the milk and sugar together long enough to get it to incorporate.

Flash forward to 2 weeks ago, my brother, sis-in-law and some friends came over for dinner. Mike had decided to make mom's hot fudge for the occasion - got everything together - and the same thing happened to him. I was like "whew - maybe I'm not the only idiot that can't make this stuff." We had done everything right! I thought that maybe my dark Calphalon saucepan (which I had also used the time prior) just gets too hot too quickly. Luckily I had another can of sweetened condensed milk and package of unsweet chocolate - so we tried again in a different pan.

Same result.

Two pots of hot fudge down the trash. One big glob of gritty chocolate.

We called my mom and yelled at her. "You probably wrote the recipe down wrong on purpose so no one makes it as good as you do! How rude!" She insisted that the recipe was correct.

The next night at dinner, my sister said "I think I know what you all did wrong. Did you use sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk?"

Ummm, yeah. We totally did. All three times I've tried (unsuccessfully) to make it. I was for sure that it was written down wrong in my mom's recipe book she gave us... but sure 'nuff, it says evaporated milk. And I know the difference between to two! They are just so easy to mix up when you buy 'em.

So this:

Not the same as this:
So tonight I'm trying one more time. We're having a group of friends over for dessert and coffee (answer: yes, we've entertained in our house every weekend since moving in) - and I'm trying the hot fudge one more time. If this doesn't work - I give up.

Have a great weekend, everyone!