When I was younger mum used to have a bottle of homemade chocolate syrup in the fridge for putting into milk or on top of icecream. When I moved down here I was excited when Hershey's syrup showed up in the supermarket and I thought it was pretty good (though rather expensive). I hadn't had it for ages though, until recently when I got some to make cold chocolate milks for Hazel. It was awful! I'm not sure if my tastes have changed, or their recipe, but it was way too sweet and not very chocolatey. So I went in search of recipes for the homemade kind which I remember being so rich and intense.
I can't remember which recipes I cobbled this together from, but it's quite wonderful and next time I'm going to use a really good cocoa instead of the bog-standard Cadbury's and it'll be even better! Even with the regular cocoa this is much much nicer than the commercially available versions, not to mention cheaper. And even if you use more expensive cocoa I figure that the increase in intensity of flavour would simply reduce the amount you needed to use and hence the cost per mug. That's my reasoning to justify a trip to Sabato for the madly expensive cocoa anyways. Seriously, once you've had this stuff it's hard to go back to Cadbury's! Sadly, the budget does dictate it happens all too often (like pretty much always).
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water*
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (to taste)
Mix the cocoa and the water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a sterile glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months.
*If you want a thicker syrup use 1 cup water. My syrup is a good pouring consistency, but might run off icecream a bit too fast (haven't tested this yet!)
Oh yum - what a great idea! Thanks for sharing... I would never have thought to make chocolate syrup...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe jacqui. I make a lot of "store bought" items from scratch. It is much cheaper and usually tastes miles better. Can't wait to try this one.
ReplyDeleteTry it with mint extract- you won't be sorry :) (You can also cook a little longer, to get it thicker, just like when you're making jam!) We keep ours in a squeeze bottle. Soo good!
ReplyDeleteI just posted an Annabel Langbein version that uses much less cocoa. But I too love cocoa and tend to buy the dutch variety. I like the CACAO box with the brown silhouette of a lady on it. Enjoy! http://wp.me/pwEpR-u0
ReplyDeleteIt's funny the things we buy and never think to make ourselves isn't it? Next on my list are crackers and underarm deodorant.
ReplyDeleteWhat else do you make instead of buying?
ReplyDeleteMmmmm....that would be lovely! But Hazel wouldn't drink it and then I'd be forced to myself which would be baaaaad. I actually boiled mine for a bit longer and it didn't thicken that much more. I suspect I'd need to reduce the amount of water to achieve that, or else boil for ages and ages.
ReplyDeleteOh I gotta have lots of cocoa! I don't know if I have a high tolerance for it or what but when it comes to say Milo, I have to put in about half the tin to get a decent strength, which gets expensive! Same with regular drinking chocolate, I have to put in about twice as much powder. I'll have to look out for the silhouette of the lady. The other one I've used and liked is an organic one that Woolworth's sells, it's lovely.
ReplyDeleteI had to go look up the recipe I use:
ReplyDelete1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
1 Tablespoon vanilla
Whisk together dry ingredients, add water, bring to a boil, and boil 1 minute. Take off heat and add extract (but I only used a tsp mint extract and it's PLENTY.) So half cup more sugar and half cup less water. I guess that WOULD make it thicker (and worse for my waist line :)
I can see using the amount of water to control the pouring consistency -
ReplyDeletethinner for drinks, thicker for icecream etc. Yours must be lovely with all
that vanilla in it, last time I only used 1 tsp but I'm definitely upping it
to 2 next time.