Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Chocolate Syrup

Our family is on a quest to banish all processed foods.  Lofty?  Yes.  Snobby?  Possibly.  Feasible?  ...I'll get back to you on that one.

In that vein, I noticed that we were running low on a family staple- our Costco-tub of Nesquik was almost gone!  If you know my husband and daughter, you know this is a tragedy of epic proportions.  Now, a new tub of Nesquik doesn't cost all that much.  But have you seen the ingredients list?  Sugar, cocoa, salt, and a bunch of stabilizers and preservatives (aka corn and soy derivatives.)  Sugar, cocoa and salt I DEFINITELY keep on hand, why couldn't I make my own?

I found out quickly it was difficult to stir cocoa powder into a glass of milk- it kept beading and lumping and sticking to my glass and spoon.  However, I did find this recipe online for chocolate syrup- almost the same ingredients, and definitely easier to stir into a glass of milk!  (Multiple sites have this same recipe, so I'm linking to the first site that pops up when I google "chocolate milk syrup recipe." :)

The syrup is rich and 'dark', like Hershey's syrup.  It's almost a little too dark for my tastes, but Wonder Daddy thinks it's perfect.  (duh...it's chocolate!)

I haven't done a cost breakdown on this, but that's only because I have a five pound bag of cocoa powder in my pantry right now.  Yes really- I found it at our local Cash N' Carry, and the price was too good to resist (somewhere around $2 a pound.)  So for right now, this DEFINITELY beats the pants off that tub of Nesquik!  This takes about 5 minutes, and makes 20 ounces.

Chocolate Syrup

1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water (or 1 for a very thick sauce)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk cocoa powder and sugar together until the lumps are gone.  Add water and salt and mix well- cook to a boil over medium heat.  (I let it boil a minute or two to make it thicker.)  Add vanilla and let cool before pouring into jars.  Or alternatively, a splash of mint extract is really nice- just a touch, a little goes a long way!

Store in the refrigerator (it will thicken when chilled.)

1 comment:

  1. Heh...sounds tasty, but I'm not sure it would be so cost effective without such cheap cocoa!

    ReplyDelete