Product Spotlight - Slickepott Fudge Sauce

I remember my mother's homemade chocolate sauce very well.  She didn't make it all that often, usually also around the time that she would make homemade ice cream.  The taste of it is, however, firmly imprinted on the part of my brain that stores childhood food memories.  There's only been a few times that I've eaten another product that even came close to the same thing.  Slickepott Fudge Sauce is one of these.

This past holiday season, when I was poking around a church gift sale with a friend, I met Ian, the company's founder.  Standing behind a table with rows of innocent looking glass jars filled with his chocolate creation, he offered my friend and me a small sample to try.  I reluctantly took one, not expecting anything special.  As soon as the flavors hit my tongue, my brain cells started to process the reaction, and I was hooked.

The fresh, creamy, silky-smooth chocolately taste lovingly wrapped itself around my tastebuds like a favorite blanket or beloved sweater, comforting and homey.  One bite brought back all the warm memories of the times we'd ask my mother to make her homemade sauce.  Yesterday, Ian was in the city and was kind enough to give me some of his time to talk about Slickepott and how he came to make a business of this delicious creation.

Based upon a family recipe, the name comes from the Swedish which, per their website, can mean a few different things.  My favorite part of the expression is "the one who licks the bowl," which was always a special treat in my family with so many of us vying for that honor.  As Ian describes it, Slickepott is like a cross between a ganache (usually a combination of chocolate and heavy cream blended together) and fudge sauce, not like the consistency of a thinner syrup.  The quality of the ingredients, including dairy products from New York State sources, comes through from the moment that first bit of chocolate reaches one's mouth.

My reaction, it turns out, was not at all unusual.  One of the favorite parts of sharing of his job is seeing people's faces light up in that moment when they realize that they are trying something that tastes like nothing they might have eaten before.  It is hard to explain, unless you've actually had something similar, just how special it is to eat really creamy, fudgey, not overly-sweet, thick sauce.  The combination of the dairy, sugar and chocolate are blended together in a way that brings out the best in all of them without any one ingredient overpowering the other.

So, how to do you eat it?  Anyway you want to basically, is the answer (which is a question that Ian often gets).  The website has some suggestions for serving it drizzled over grilled fruit, made into a base for truffles, and poured over mini-cakes.  I could see dipping shortbread cookies into it or eating it with pancakes or waffles, as well.  My friend confessed later that he'd just taken a spoon and finished off the last of the jar that he bought.  Ian shared that he often hears that from buyers, who tilt their heads in modest shame as they reveal this deep, dark secret.

Buon appetito!

Currently, Slickepott is only available online via their website and at several stores, mostly upstate.