Chocolate and Water Don't Mix

My craft this week is less a craft than a home-making tip... I have this DELICIOUS recipe for Hot Fudge Sauce that I made last night. I've made it before, but it has been a really long time- probably before we knew our oldest boy was allergic to milk.  Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips- semi-sweet or milk chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

1 can evaporated milk

Melt the chocolate and the butter in the microwave, stirring frequently until smooth.  Add the milk, gently whisking it in.  Microwave in 30 second increments until it is thick and glossy.  It was thicken more as it sets.  Serve warm over ice cream.

So for our date last night, we had a fairy tale theme because I'd borrowed Ella Enchanted from the library to watch.  We were stuck at home, due to scout camp and girl's camp falling on the same week.  We carved soap and told tales about our carvings.  E's was a crystal ball and mine was a tower.  Then we played Pictionary with an "Enchanted" twist.  The person drawing didn't know what they were drawing, they had to do as they were told and figure out what it was.  There were three rounds; 1 where we could both see, 1 where the one drawing was blindfolded, 1 where the person giving direction was blindfolded.  It was great fun!

Finally, while we were watching the movie (which is very, very different from the book I loved so much) I made a treat "fit for a king"-- really I just wanted an awesome banana split.  I made the hot fudge sauce and the chocolate totally seized up!  It was like curdled chocolate, and I'd even bought the nice Guittard milk chocolate chips!  So I tried to mix the milk in to smooth it out, and it smoothed out, but it was the consistency of milk, not hot fudge.  What a bummer!

So I figured out the reason... I used margarine instead of butter because I don't buy butter since the allergy diagnosis.  I didn't even think about it, but margarine's second ingredient is water.  I knew that water would do that to melted chocolate, but I neglected to consider the water in margarine... so learn from my mistake and if you're ever melting chocolate with a fat- you can use butter, you can use shortening,  you could probably even use oil- never, never, never use margarine!