Sanders Hot Fudge and the Cream Puff: Detroit Since 1875

Fred Sanders opened his candy store at Woodward and Gratiot avenues on June 17, 1875. He had already lost one business. According to the Detroit Historical Society, his first soda fountain and candy shop was in Chicago, and the Great Fire of 1871 took it.

He was born Frederick Sanders Schmidt in Germany, and he went by his middle name. The Detroit store worked. By 1891 he had opened a "Pavilion of Sweets" at Michigan and Woodward, and five years later the company moved into a former J.L. Hudson store on Woodward north of John R, the historical society's Encyclopedia of Detroit records.

A century and a half later, the thing most people in metro Detroit associate with the name is not a chocolate bar. It's a jar of hot fudge.

The ice cream soda story

Sanders has a founding legend, and it involves a mistake. The way the Detroit Historical Society tells it, Sanders was making a cream soda in 1876 when he found his cream had gone sour, so he dropped in ice cream instead. Soda fountain operators in other cities have been credited with the same idea, so treat it as Detroit's version of the story. It does explain why Sanders spent the next century as a soda fountain as much as a candy maker.

Baked goods came in 1913, according to the historical society. Over the following decades the shops grew into counter-service lunch spots that sold candy, toppings, cakes and sundaes. Sanders' own company history says the chain eventually reached more than 57 locations across the Great Lakes region.

The hot fudge came decades after the store. The Detroit News has reported that Sanders began making it in the 1930s. The fudge went into jars for home kitchens and over cream puffs at the counter. Hour Detroit, writing about the company's flagship store in 2017, called the cream puff "the epitome of the experience."

The dessert itself is simple. A pastry shell is filled with ice cream and covered in hot fudge until it runs down the sides of the dish.

Who owns Sanders now

Sanders has changed hands several times. Country Home Bakers bought the company in 1988, according to the Detroit Historical Society. In 2002, Morley Candy Makers bought the rights to the Sanders name and products.

In October 2018, Kar's Nuts, the Detroit snack company founded in 1933, acquired Morley and the Sanders brand. The combined business, based in Madison Heights, now operates as Second Nature Brands. In April 2022 the London private equity firm CapVest Partners bought Second Nature Brands, the Detroit News reported at the time.

The ownership changes reached the jar. Sanders paused production of its dessert toppings in the fall of 2022, citing manufacturing problems and demand, and brought the milk chocolate hot fudge back in August 2023, WXYZ reported. The returning version was reformulated. Corn syrup and carrageenan came out, and the company now lists cream, cane sugar and salted butter as the first three ingredients on its product page. Longtime customers argued about it in the Detroit News in 2025. Some said it no longer tasted like the one they grew up with. The paper's food writer, Melody Baetens, liked it.

Sanders still runs its own shops. The company lists a chocolate and ice cream shoppe at 23770 Hall Road in Clinton Township, another at 436 S. Main St. in Rochester, and a seasonal store on Main Street on Mackinac Island. When Hour Detroit toured the timbered Hall Road building after its 2017 renovation, it housed both the store and company offices, with a glassed-in kitchen where customers could watch cookies and cream puffs being made.

How to make a hot fudge cream puff at home

You can buy cream puff shells at many bakeries. If you'd rather make them, a basic choux pastry takes about 15 minutes of work and gives you a dozen shells. This is our method.

For the shells (makes about 12)

• 1 cup water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut up
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Bring the water, butter and salt to a full boil in a saucepan. Dump in the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring over medium heat for about two minutes, until the dough pulls into a ball and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan.
3. Move the dough to a bowl and let it cool for five minutes so it won't cook the eggs. Beat in the eggs one at a time. The dough will look broken after each egg. Keep going and it comes back together, glossy and thick enough to hold a soft peak.
4. Drop mounds about the size of a golf ball onto the sheet, two inches apart. Wet a fingertip and press down any points.
5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until deep golden and light in your hand. Don't open the oven in the first 20 minutes or they'll fall. Poke a small slit in the side of each one and let them cool on a rack. Steam trapped inside makes them soggy.

To build the sundae

1. Split a cooled shell crosswise, about two-thirds of the way up.
2. Pack the bottom with a firm scoop of vanilla ice cream. Straight from the freezer is better than softened here, because the fudge is about to melt it.
3. Set the lid on top at an angle.
4. Pour warm hot fudge over the whole thing, more than seems reasonable. Whipped cream is optional. Serve it in a bowl with a spoon. This is not finger food.

How to warm the jar

The current Sanders hot fudge is built on cream and butter. That's good news for flavor and a warning for heat. Boil it and the butterfat can separate, leaving a greasy layer on top and a grainy sauce underneath.

• Water bath (best). Take the lid off. Set the jar in a small pan with hot tap water or water that has just come off a simmer, reaching about halfway up the glass. Leave it five to ten minutes, stirring once or twice. The fudge warms evenly and never gets close to boiling.
• Microwave (fastest). Lid off, always. Heat in 10-second bursts, stirring between each one. A full refrigerated jar usually needs two or three rounds. The edges heat before the center, so stir all the way to the bottom before deciding it needs more time.
• For a crowd. Spoon what you need into a small saucepan and warm it over low heat, stirring constantly. Take it off the burner the moment it pours easily.

Only warm what you'll use. Reheating the whole jar over and over thins it out. Once opened, keep it in the refrigerator; the fudge firms up cold, which is why it needs warming at all.

Sanders hot fudge goes into a few of our boxes, including The 313 Box ($79) and The Woodward ($189). If you're sending one to someone who grew up with it, the cream puff method above fits on the back of the card.