White Chocolate Sauce

If you love dessert but don’t love baking, bookmark this white chocolate sauce recipe. Luxurious, creamy and sweet, it transforms even a simple bowl of fruit into an elegant dessert. You can also use it as a drizzle over pound cake (homemade or store-bought), as a dip for butter cookies or as a topping for ice cream. The sky is the limit.

The sauce is so versatile, it’s one of our favorite white chocolate recipes. With just three ingredients and a super simple method, anyone can make this dessert sauce—but it’s so impressively rich that everyone will think you’re a pastry chef!

White Chocolate Sauce Ingredients

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• Heavy whipping cream: Rich, thick heavy whipping cream makes a flavorful, smooth sauce. In this white chocolate sauce recipe, it’s best to use the full-fat stuff rather than subbing in low-fat alternatives; you need the cream for body.
• Butter: Butter makes everything taste better. Use a high-quality butter brand for the best flavor.
• White baking chocolate: Not all white chocolate is equal. The best white chocolate chips have lots of flavor and a creamy (not waxy) texture. White chocolate is so sweet that you don’t need to add any extra sugar to the sauce.

Directions

Step 1: Melt the butter

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In a small saucepan, bring the cream and butter to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Editor’s Tip: Don’t let the cream come to a boil, which can make it curdle.

Step 2: Add the white chocolate

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Add the white chocolate and remove the pan from the heat. Do not stir. Let the mixture stand for five minutes, which will soften and melt the chocolate.

Step 3: Stir the sauce

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Whisk until the sauce is smooth.

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White Chocolate Sauce Variations

• Make it minty: Add a few drops of mint extract to lend a refreshing zip to the sauce. (Mint extract is super strong, so go easy!)
• Add vanilla: A dash of vanilla extract gives this white chocolate sauce recipe a subtle cozy flavor.
• Try it with citrus: Stir the zest of a lemon or orange into the sauce after it’s whisked together.
• Spice it up: Simple white chocolate pairs well with cozy baking spices, like pumpkin pie spice.

How to Store White Chocolate Sauce

Leftover white chocolate sauce keeps well. Allow it to cool completely, then transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator.

How long does white chocolate sauce last?

In the fridge, leftover white chocolate sauce will keep for up to one week. To help it last longer, insert only clean utensils into the container.

Can you freeze white chocolate sauce?

Unfortunately, this dairy-rich sauce does not freeze well. The cream may separate or get grainy after defrosting.

White Chocolate Sauce Tips

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How do you use white chocolate sauce?

This sauce is so versatile—use it as a drizzle or a dip for virtually any sweet.

• As a dip: The easiest way to use it is probably as a dip with fruit: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, pineapple, kiwi and more taste great with white chocolate. Or, dip crispy cookies or biscotti into the sauce.
• As a drizzle: You can upgrade simple cakes, such as lemon cake, pound cake, angel food cake or pumpkin cake, with a drizzle of white chocolate. Drizzle the sauce over brownies to lighten up the rich cocoa, or pour the sauce over your favorite ice cream flavor. In the morning, have dessert for breakfast and pour the sauce over pancakes or waffles.
• As a snack: White chocolate sauce also makes a delicious sweet-and-savory snack. Dip pretzels into the sauce, or slather the sauce on toast as you would do with Nutella.

What can you do if white chocolate sauce hardens in the fridge?

This white chocolate sauce recipe will harden in the fridge—it may even get so thick that you won’t be able to stick a spoon in it. Not to worry! Simply leave the sauce at room temperature for an hour before you want to serve it.

Or, if you’re in a hurry, gently reheat the sauce in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stick close to it: As the sauce starts to melt at the bottom of the bowl, remove the bowl from the heat and give the sauce a good stir. The residual heat will soften the rest of the sauce without turning the batch to liquid.