Homemade Chocolate Syrup: Delicious & Plastic-Free
Hershey’s. Nestle. Santa Cruz Organic. Ah!Laska. Dagoba. What do these syrups have in common? (Besides some form of chocolate?) Some are conventional. Some are organic. Fair trade. But all of them are packaged in plastic squeeze bottles. How can products can be labeled organic when they are packaged in plastic? Shouldn’t chemicals from plastic packaging be considered in organic certification?
Well anyway, Michael and I need our chocolate syrup in order to be happy. So I found a very simple recipe and have tweaked it to perfection.
Homemade Chocolate Syrup Recipe
1 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened) (Purchased from bulk bin in my own container.)
2 cups sugar (From bulk bins — I use 1/2 dark brown sugar and 1/2 granulated sugar.)
1/4 teaspoon salt (Bulk bin.)
1 cup cold water (Tap, of course!)
1 tablespoon vanilla (Glass bottle with small plastic cap.)
Combine cocoa and sugar and blend until all lumps of cocoa are gone. Add water and salt and mix well. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil slowly, stirring constantly. Continue stirring on the stove for just a couple more minutes, being careful not to let the sauce burn on the bottom of the pan. The sauce should still be fairly runny. Remove from heat and let cool. The sauce will thicken up as it cools. When cool, add vanilla.
Nowadays, we keep our chocolate syrup in a glass syrup pitcher in the refrigerator. The syrup should not be too thick to pour.
Note: This is NOT fudge sauce. It is syrup and will not be as thick as fudge, which necessarily contains fat, and lots of it! This syrup is great for chocolate milk, hot cocoa, ice cream topping, or putting on cereal. Never heard of that? Ask Michael.
Enjoy!
Note: This post last updated on 05/29/2012.
Hi Beth,
Your site is one of my favorites! Thanks so much for having it!
I’ve been making my own for a long time, also (it even tastes better!) though I think I use a bit less sugar than you, usually. You commented that this is not fudge sauce. For those who do want fudge sauce (not me) all you have to do to get it thick like fudge is to simmer it for a little longer, like 5 to 10 minutes instead of 3 or 4. I found out accidentally by cooking my chocolate sauce too long.
Also, my daughter liked Ovaltine, and was very disappointed when I stopped buying it because of the plastic container. I have finally found Barley Malt Syrup packaged in a glass jar to add to the chocolate sauce to come close to that flavor, in case anyone likes the Chocolate Malted taste. Do you know of any powder form of malt for this purpose? I’d like to find an alternative because of the plastic lining on the cap of the jar.
Another thing is the sugar issue. I want to use organic sugar but have yet to find it without plastic packaging. I can only find the non-organic in paper. Not seen it in bulk so far. So I’m thinking of switching to using honey or maple syrup. Or possibly has anyone here found organic sugar in paper?
I haven’t found organic sugar in paper, but I do get it from bulk bins at Whole Foods and other natural foods stores.
You’re both right.
Here’s a nutritional breakdown of unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch proc.) with 11% sat. fat. You can look up other ones on here too.
Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened, processed with alkali [Dutch cocoa]
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5472/2
As with Hershey’s my bet is that they use very little real powder and a lot of cheap artificial flavoring. Even though it’s last on ingredients list, you don’t need much volume when you’re using industrial strength flavorings.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the saturated fat though. At least it’s natural. The HFCS and other franken-food ingredients in the mass marketed ones have to be a lot worse for you.
Remember fake-fat margarine was supposed to be healthier for us. We now know that butter is in fact the healthier one.
Katie, that’s interesting. I wonder why Hershey’s syrup label says it has 0 calories from fat when it is also made with cocoa. By the way, in case anyone’s wondering how this recipe compares to the ingredients in Hershey’s syrup, here they are: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP; CORN SYRUP; WATER; COCOA; SUGAR; CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE); SALT; MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES; XANTHAN GUM; POLYSORBATE 60; VANILLIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR
Just a note – this syrup cannot be fat-free as cocoa powder contains fat, sometimes up to 24%!
I’m pretty sure that when they make cocoa powder, they remove the cocoa butter. Then when they make chocolate, they put it back in. I just went to Hershey Park and took the Hershey Chocolate Factory tour a few weeks ago. You can also see it on their website. No fat in the powder, just in the end result chocolate bars.
Although, when we were kids, my Mom sometimes made this sauce with a couple tablespoons of butter added, and let me tell you, that was GOOD!
Has anyone tried this using raw cacao powder instead? If so how did it work? Any changes to the recipe?
Trish. I haven’t tried it, but if you do please let me know how it turns out.
That’s what I planned to do anyway because Raw Cacao Powder is plant based & I rather use that over regular Cocoa powder. Plus I have around 2 pounds of Organic Raw Cacao Powder with nothing to do with it, so I figured this is a good option because then I can use it on ice cream, in coffee, on donuts, cookies etc & all organic & natural. I am going to try it this weekend & I will post back how it goes. For the sugar I will use date sugar & I will also make another version using organic sugar cane sugar & another using NOW Foods Erythritol Pure Sweetener
Trish, yes! My husband made our last batch and couldn’t find the vanilla so he used mint extract instead. It was delicious!
This worked great!
In fact I’m drinking some milk made with it as I write this. Yum!
I made a make a couple of changes though:
1) With no brown sugar on hand, I added 2 tbsp of molasses (the actual conversion rate is to add 2 tbsp for each cup but I wasn’t sure how it’d work).
2) On my 2nd round I wanted a less sweet, dark chocolate taste, so I increased the choc powder to 1 & 1/2 cup and kept the sane sugar amount.
Both changes worked well, though I may try to add more molasses on the next batch.
I bottled them in recycled glass maple syrup bottles. (Thanks Freecycle!)
Since I live in New England and it is winter, I stashed them in a cool, dark kitchen cabinet, instead of the fridge,
I doubt I’ll get to it this year but I’m hatching a plan for next year’s holidays gifts.
I’m going to try and add small amounts of orange and (very small amounts) of peppermint extract to make Chocolate L’Orange and ChocoPeppermint syrups!
I’ve made this a few times now – my kids love me all the more for it!
It is really important that when it comes to a boil you keep stirring for no more than two minutes to keep it runny enough to pour. I keep ours in a cleaned out glass bottle that used to have store-bought salad dressing in it. Pours out easily and is less messy than spooning it out of a jar. However, the one time I wasn’t paying attention and boiled it too long, the sauce was too thick. It still made good chocolate milk, it was just too thick to pour. No one complained about licking the extra thick sauce off the spoon though 😉
This sounds good and there are a lot of good suggestions on here. Little by little we are changing for the better.
I’m so glad it worked out for you, Sunny! We love it. In fact, I need to make another batch right now before Michael gets home and wants to know where his chocolate syrup is. (I sometimes eat spoonfuls right out of the container.)
Thanks for the great recipe. I followed it just as written (with your updated directions) and I even used a timer to be sure I stirred it for just 2 minutes after it came to a boil. It turned out perfect. The recipe filled a 2 cup canning jar. The only trouble I have is convincing my two boys that just 1/2 a spoonful of syrup is enough for a glass of chocolate milk; they like to take a big spoonful because it’s just so yummy!
Thank you so much for posting this. Last week my husband was wondering why it took me so long in the grocery store. It was because I was trying to find a chocolate syrup that didn’t contain HFCS and could not find ANY options. Thanks to you, next time I’ll know where to go to find a recipe to make my own!
Not sure what I did wrong with this recipe, but man, did it set up THICK! I mean like frosting-thick! Useless for chocolate milk, that’s for sure! LOL and it got a crunchy skin like frosting that gets left out for a bit…
It was phenomenal straight out of the pot, though! LOL
oops…
Hi QponCutie. I need to update that recipe. While the original recipe says that you cook it until it’s thick, that’s not actually what we do. We stir it constantly on medium heat just passed the boiling point. Then, we take it off the stove, pour it into a ceramic pitcher, and let it cool down. Once refrigerated, it thickens up just enough so you can still pour it. I’m guessing you may have cooked it too long. Could that have been the problem?
that’s awesome i make and bottle in reused containers a lot of the stuff i cooked with but never even considered chocolate syrup,that’s a good idea and my kids will like it too.
Lauren, for us it stays good for months.
I’m really excited about this recipe! How long will it stay good in the fridge? Thank you!
Hi Savvychristine. I’ve made this recipe several times now and never had this problem. And we do store it in the refrigerator. Did you bring it to a complete boil on the stove? The recipe says to cook it until it’s thick, but I just bring it to a boil (stirring the whole time) and then turn off the burner and let it sit and cool down before putting in the vanilla.
Are you stirring the whole time?
I really don’t know why the sugar wouldn’t be completely dissolving for you. Mine does. But also, I use 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar. I wonder if that’s part of it.
Hi Scott and Greeen Sheeep. I went to Rainbow Grocery here in SF over the weekend and found organic, fair trade sugar in the bulk bin. I just updated my blog post. So it does exist. I guess it’s a matter of asking your bulk foods store to carry it.
And Anonymous, while I was at Rainbow, I checked out the bulk vanilla beans. Unfortunately, each one was individually wrapped in plastic. Will check at Whole Foods and see if it’s the same story. Maybe the plastic is to keep them from drying out? And don’t know. Ended up buying a large glass bottle of Frontier fairtrade, organic vanilla extract instead. Hopefully it will last a while.
Karen — I could be wrong but I believe you can grind your own peanut butter at Whole Foods. Bring your own container. And I think you can set the grinder for smooth or crunchy. Maybe not all the stores have the capability, but I think ours does.
Greeen Sheeep — the next time I buy bulk sugar, I need to check and see if it’s organic. I thought it was, but I could be wrong. I’m pretty sure the cocoa was organic, but I bought it a long time ago. That’s one of the drawbacks of bulk bins — no labels to check later.
Hayley — be thankful your mom is doing something green, and she might not even realize it!
Crunch — Are you kidding? I pour kahlua directly on my ice cream from the bottle. (Oh, except I don’t really buy it anymore because of the plastic cap. I do have some principles.)
JessTrev — I’ve been meaning to try making homemade ketchup, except we eat so little of it, we still have a partial plastic bottle in the frig from over 18 months ago. Mustard too. Is it time to ditch them???
Hi Angie. You can make your own sour cream. I did it last year with cream and buttermilk. But I have to admit that unless you own your own cow, there will be some plastic involved — either the plastic coating on the cardboard cartons or the plastic cap on the glass bottle. I do think it’s worth it though — tastes better and uses less plastic overall. Here’s a recipe:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/sour-cream-recipe.html
Anonymous, I think I’ll try making my own vanilla. I believe I can buy vanilla beans in bulk from Whole Foods. They have a whole spice section. I guess I should get started now, if it’s going to take 3 months.