Homemade All-Natural Chocolate Syrup, or, Basting Your Friends and Acquaintances

Hola, tasty, tasty misfits!

I would love to excuse my brief shall-we-say hiccup in updating with a clever bullshit-laden post about how absence makes us appreciate what we have.  I would tell you that it heightens every sense, that it enchances our enjoyment of food, relationships, blah-blah-blah.  But quite honestly, your Bad Mama Genny was in her beautiful hometown of Chicago for two weeks for the holiday and oh!  The enjoyment!

In other news, congratulations to Peter of FotoCuisine for winning my panko challenge with his recipe, New Mexico Chile Three Cheese Mac and Cheese!  As promised, I’ll be sending Peter a free bag of panko as his prize.  ‘Cause I be keepin’ my bitchin’ promises.

But on another note, I’d like to talk to you about a serious problem, namely the lack of a readily-available, all-natural chocolate syrup.  Because when you’re drizzling stuff on bodies, you wanna know what’s in it, right?  Of course, your BMG would never leave you high and dry–she’d prefer to keep you wet and sticky AND corn syrup free, ladh-di-freaking-dah, my babies!

So here’s my recipe for Homemade, All-Natural Chocolate Syrup.  I tweaked my version from one I found on RecipeZaar (this be it)  to indicate the quality of ingredients, make it darker, and expand on the vague directions.  No HFCS, less sugar, and not very much time at all, so you can be basting yourself and all your friends and acquaintances in practically no time!

Basting friends and acquaintances.  It’s what I do best.

This recipe is very dark, thick, and rich, and should you be bored with basting people, lends itself so well to ice cream, chocolate milk, peanut butter…the list goes on.  I used vanilla extract in this recipe, but I could see trying it with mint, raspberry, orange, or even with a little espresso powder stirred in.  Or pour some into a little jar, smack a ribbon on that, and give it away, give it away, give it away now.

All-Natural Chocolate Syrup

Go Get:
1 cup 100% cocoa powder
1 cup raw cane sugar (this yields a darker syrup-add more if you prefer a sweeter chocolate)
1 dash high quality salt (think Celtic or Himalayan)
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon Bourbon Vanilla Extract

Go Do:
Put all ingredients into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk everything together until well combined. Turn the heat to medium, whisking constantly. When it begins to boil, watch it carefully, continuing to whisk constantly and quickly, being sure not to let any thick syrup collect on the bottom of the pot.

Allow it to boil for 2 to 5 minutes, or until the desired thickness is achieved.

I may have let mine go a little further than the original recipe’s author intended-no complaints here, though. I ended up with a thick, fudge-y sauce that I prefer to the thin, lifeless stuff in the brown plastic bottle. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow it to cool at room temperature; store, covered, in the refrigerator. Makes about 2 cups.