Hello friends! I’ve been traveling with my husband and our youth group for the last four weeks and had to take a break from posting but I’m back 🙂 I am so blessed to have been a part of some amazing trips with even more amazing teens this summer, and now I’m thankful to be home and slow down for a bit. The past few days have been about getting back to our regular schedule here in our home. Some of that is laundry (tons), groceries, cleaning (how does a house get so dirty with no one in it?! ), harvesting from the garden, preparing and freezing our veggies, playing and laughing together as a family.
One thing I had to do was make more chocolate syrup, I don’t know about your house but ours has three kids four and under and we can go through some chocolate syrup!
My littles love chocolate milk so much we limit it to one glass a day then white milk after that. Last year I learned that the syrup I was buying has preservatives in it and costs a lot more than homemade. I found a great recipe through some trial and error and it is easy, cheap and fast to make. So I make it about once a week or so now.
Ingredients:
1 Cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 Cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Cup water
2 Tablespoons vanilla
First of all I use a large stock pot because it won’t allow my syrup to boil over the pot (did this twice with a large pot and learned my lesson as I scrubbed out hardened syrup from under my burners).
Next I measure out my cocoa powder. I set my measuring cup on a paper plate because I inevitably spill some and this way I can funnel it back into the container when I’m done.
I add the cocoa powder and sugar to the stock pot.
Then add the salt, vanilla (I use my momma’s homemade vanilla extract and as you can see from the picture I’m running out… need to call momma) and water.
I stir it with a whisk, before and after stirring pictures…
Let it come to a boil over high heat while whisking.
Let boil over medium high heat for 5 minutes while stirring. Remove from the heat and let sit until cooled off. At first it will still be boiling, and then it will take on a smooth and shiny look as it cools.
I use an old 48 oz. chocolate syrup bottle that I have cleaned out and fill it with a funnel. This can be tricky with a big stockpot and I try to get someone to hold the bottle and funnel while I hold the stockpot and spatula to scrape out all the yummy syrup into the funnel. Normally I make a double recipe and it fills the bottle 3/4 full. That lasts us about 2 weeks, which is perfect because in the fridge that is the shelf life of this recipe.
My kids love it and I love the savings/lack of preservatives. Thanks for stopping by!
Johanna 🙂
I love love love learning how to make things from scratch. I can’t wait to give this a try!