Like a savory sauce, a good dessert sauce completes a dish. What’s an ice cream sundae without the sauces? Just a bowl of ice cream. Dessert sauces can be divided into 4 categories: custards, chocolate, caramel and fruit sauces.
Custards
A custard is a cream or milk mixture thickened with eggs. Egg proteins solidify into a solid mass at 160ËšF. When eggs are used in cooking, other ingredients slow their coagulation and allow the preparation to form various consistencies. Th ratio of liquid to eggs, the type of liquid used and the use of yolks only or whole eggs determines a custard’s consistency. More eggs will result in a thicker custard. Using whole eggs, with the additional protein from the egg whites will create a firmer textured custard than one made with part or only egg yolks. A custard made with whole eggs tends to have more of an egg-flavor, owing to the presence of sulfur in egg whites. A custard made with cream will also tend to be thicker than a custard made with just milk. How a custard is cooked also affects its consistency. A stirred custard, cooked on the stovetop will generally be silky and smooth like crème anglaise, crème pâtissière, sabayon or fruit curds. Baked custards like flans, crème caramels and cheesecakes are usually baked in a water bath and cook up firm enough to un-mold and slice. Puddings are a type of  spoonable custard additionally thickened with corn starch or other starch.
Ganache
Ganache is mixture of chocolate and cream. A basic ganache starts with equal parts cream and chocolate. Butter, liqueurs or other flavorings may also be used. At thinner consistencies, a ganache may be used a chocolate sauce or a glaze. Very thin ganaches can be folded into an ice cream base. Very thick ganaches can be used for fillings, or rolled in to confections like chocolate truffles. Melted butter can replace the cream in a ganache and used to make a real “Magic Shell” coating for ice cream.
Caramel
When sugar is melted sufficiently to remove most of the water contained within a sugar molecule, the sugar will begin to darken in color and form caramel. As the sugar melts and the water is driven off, the temperature of the sugar increases. The more water that is driven off from sugar, the harder the resultant cooled sugar is. Between 230ËšF and 235ËšF, 80% of the sugar’s water has been cooked off and the sugar is said to be at “thread stage”, where a drop from the syrup form thin threads when dropped into ice water.  As more water is cooked off, the harder the sugar candy will be. At 300ËšF to 310ËšF, the hard crack stage, 99% of the water has been removed. At 338ËšF, 100% of the water has been cooked off, the syrup begins to darken.  This is the brown-liquid stage or caramel stage. Sugar will burn, and may ignite at temperatures above 350ËšF.
Tips for making caramel:
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