Chocolate Syrup from Scratch
To me, Hershey’s Syrup is only good for only one thing: making chocolate milk. It’s too sweet and the texture is weird to be used for anything else. I’ve never enjoyed it over ice cream, and I certainly wouldn’t dream of licking it off of a spoon. This chocolate syrup, though, I both enjoyed it drizzled on vanilla ice cream…and I ate it straight out of the container, on several occasions.
I originally set out to make hot fudge as a special dessert for my college-bound little brother. Store-bought hot fudge contains all sorts of unpronounceable preservatives and weird stabilizers and other things that I figure we’re all better off without having in our bellies, so I decided to make some from scratch instead. I found several recipes that looked great…only they all called for cream, and I didn’t have any. But then I found this recipe from David Lebovitz, which only called for a few ingredients that I already had on hand. Brilliant.
Here’s the thing…I should have known from the recipe title that this is, indeed, chocolate sauce and not hot fudge. I confess that I did not think about or realize the difference between these two confectionary treats. And then I made a few, small adjustments to the original recipe, and the result turned out less like thick fudge sauce, and more like a richer, tastier, more complex Hershey’s syrup. But as such, it’s actually much more versatile—it’s great over ice cream, drizzled atop a brownie, or even stirred into plain yogurt for an afternoon snack. (Yes, I went there…and yes, you should, too.)
Homemade Chocolate Syrup
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s Best Chocolate Sauce
Makes about 2 1/2 cups
The amount of sugar you use can depend on how dark your chocolate is and how sweet you want the resulting syrup to be.
1 cup water
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably the Dutch-process kind)
3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Once it’s just bubbling, remove from heat and stir in chopped chocolate until smooth. Cool for at least 2 hours before using. (You can reheat it before serving, if you like.)
August 24th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Looks awesome! Nick is still draining the brown squeezy bottles, but after they’re all used up, I’ll have to make this!
August 24th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Holy cow – I just fainted because your brother is old enough to be going to college!
Then I realized I have all of these ingredients in my pantry and my Jason will be happy to taste test this recipe.
RL
August 28th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Love the simplicity of these recipes–shows you can create amazing food with just a few ingredients. And I love how fast move of your recipes come together…perfect for busy schedules! Next request: enchiladas. Not sure why but I’ve been wanting to make them. Recipe?
August 28th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Love the simplicity of these recipes–shows you can create amazing food with just a few ingredients. And I love how fast move of your recipes come together…perfect for busy schedules! Next request: enchiladas. Not sure why but I’ve been wanting to make them. The lighter the better, of course. Recipe?
August 28th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I actually just made a version of enchiladas last week called Enfrijoladas, which were delish but ugly. I love enchiladas suizas, so maybe I’ll work on a recipe soon!