.jpg)
Hard sauce is a Thanksgiving tradition passed down from my grandmother, Mildred Royle. If you have never tried this heavenly melt in your mouth dessert topping, you will be amazed at how hard sauce transforms a simple pie into an amazing dessert. We absolutely love hard sauce with chocolate pecan pie or pumpkin pie but it can also turn a simple frozen Katz’s apple or cherry into an extraordinary event.
This year we had an early traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday before we left for vacation. Before dessert was served, my daughter asked “Did you make hard sauce?” I actually hadn’t even considered making hard sauce because I had pared down the menu since there were only three of us eating our early Thanksgiving dinner. But it was 6 o’clock and I wasn’t entertaining a house full of dinner guests so, of course, I began to to make my grandmother’s hard sauce which began with getting out a calendar cookbook that my uncle Kent had made to pass down her favorite recipes.
A photo of my grandmother at our family cabin in Echo Lake on the cover of the calendar reminded me how recipes like this hard sauce connect us to our family members who have passed away and create special family traditions that can be passed down for generations. I made two batches of hard sauce—one was the original recipe with butter and a second recipe that was dairy free but equally tasty.
MILDRED’S HARD SAUCE RECIPE
1/4 pound butter (1 stick or 1/2 cup)*
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup boiling water
- Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla extract and continue to mix until well incorporated.
- Add boiling water very slowly by pouring a small stream of boiling water on the side of the bowl while the mixer is on medium. The boiling water, added slowly, will melt the sugar but slowly added it should not melt the butter.
- Turn off mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- When all the boiling water has been added beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy. It should be light and creamy and look like mayo.
- Using a spatula, transfer the sauce into your fanciest small bowl. Refrigerate whipped topping until hardened.
- Serve with hot pie or your favorite Thanksgiving dessert.
- Enjoy!
* Butter should be a little softened but not room temperature so that it doesn’t melt when you add the boiling water.
DAIRY-FREE HARD SAUCE RECIPE
2 tablespoons earth balance
6 tablespoons spectrum shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup boiling water
- Cream earth balance, shortening and sugar together in a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla extract and continue to mix until well incorporated.
- Add boiling water very slowly by pouring a small stream of boiling water on the side of the bowl while the mixer is on medium. The boiling water, added slowly, will melt the sugar but slowly added it should not melt the butter.
- Turn off mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- When all the boiling water has been added beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy. It should be light and creamy and look like mayo.
- Using a spatula, transfer the sauce into your fanciest small bowl. Refrigerate whipped topping until hardened.
- Serve with hot pie or your favorite Thanksgiving dessert.
Enjoy!
Acknowledgements…
Thanks to Mildred Royle for this recipe,Lynn, my mother, for lovingly making this recipe for me year after year at Thanksgiving and to my uncle Kent for the calendar.