Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Well, it started with cocoa. I was trying to find something, anything! to put into Matthews, my 7yo,  yogurt, because apparently him and greek yogurt aren't best friends yet. Katie, my 5yo, loves it with just a smidgen of any kind of preserves. I was slinging honey, cocoa powder, orange and vanilla extracts, sugar, jellies, (not all at the same time mind you) in my kitchen, and each time "Taste this one!" would be followed by that all too well known sour face.

I really want him to like yogurt again. I could go back to buying his favorite, which happens to be Yoplait Light Orange, however, I had a glance at the back of the carton one day, and noticed there was high fructose corn syrup. Which surprised me, because it's supposedly "light". I figured it was sweetened with Splenda, which in very small amounts, I'm fine with.

However, I think I might have found the solution. In my quest, I came across a blog, in which they detail how to make homemade chocolate syrup. I was told "just go out and get some Hershey's!" Uh, no thanks.  Do you know what the first four ingredients of Hershey's syrup are? High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, cocoa and sugar. So, three different types of sugar, two of them known to not be very good for the body, and water and cocoa.

So here's the recipe and what you'll need

• Heavy saucepan
• whisk
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of cocoa powder (dark or regular is fine)
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract (I like to use the pure extract, not the imitation, it tastes better). 

In the saucepan, whisk together your sugar and cocoa until well blended, and all lumps of cocoa are broken up.

Add in the water and salt. Stir until blended, and then put on medium to med-high heat. Now, make sure you stir continuously here, I would hate for your chocolate to burn to the bottom of the pan. Nothing worse than burnt on chocolate taste, it tends to ruin the entire batch. Bring to a boil, and when it's been at a rolling boil for  a minute or so, remove from heat and let cool. This takes about five to ten minutes. At some point later in time, come back and whisk in your vanilla.

You can then pour your syrup into a mason jar with lid, or an old jelly or spaghetti jar you've saved, and store it in the fridge. Just make sure that whatever jar you choose, has a tight fitting lid.

You can use it now, just as you would Hershey's syrup! On your ice cream, in your milk, etc. And if it ends up a bit on the thick side because of the coldness of the fridge, you can simply nuke it for about 30 seconds and that will thin it right up.