Homemade Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate syrup is a sweet tooth staple, and we’ll show you how simple it is to create at home. This Hershey’s Syrup copycat recipe is intensely chocolatey, sweet-as-can-be, and perfect for adding the finishing touch to any treat you can dream up.


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If making homemade versions of your favorite store-bought products has been on your to-do list for a while, this recipe for homemade chocolate sauce is an inspiring place to start. Our chocolate syrup has only 6 ingredients–one of them is water, so really 5–and none of that processed junk. Plus, it calls for standard baking ingredients that you probably already have stocked in your pantry, which means that making your own will cost pennies compared to the store-bought stuff. It takes only 15 minutes, and couldn’t be any easier. We have a hunch that you’ll never buy one of those brown plastic bottles again, because making chocolate sauce from scratch is so much more satisfying. Can’t you just taste the homemade goodness?

We all have childhood memories of mixing up a glass of chocolate milk: squirting a jet of chocolate syrup into ice cold milk, stirring until all the white turned brown–and a few gulps later ending up with an empty glass and a chocolate milk mustache. But of course, this chocolate sauce is really ice cream’s best friend. Can you even imagine an ice cream sundae without the chocolate sauce? Utterly unthinkable!

This recipe makes a cup of chocolate syrup, but that’s going to go fast: your family will be drizzling this ice cream with a cherry on top, drenching it on fresh-baked brownies, adding chocolate swirls to peanut butter banana smoothies, and whisking it into lattes to turn them into a mochas. This chocolate sauce is going to be gone so quick, it might be a good idea to double the recipe–or even triple it!

Homemade Chocolate Sauce

Makes 1 cup
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½-¾ teaspoon instant coffee powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

  1. In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, water, cocoa, milk chocolate, coffee powder, and salt. Whisk over medium heat until the dry ingredients have dissolved, the chocolate has melted, and the consistency of the mixture appears uniform.
  2. Continue cooking and whisking until the mixture is just hot enough to begin to bubble around the edges, about 3 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
  4. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. The chocolate syrup will keep almost indefinitely.

Chef’s Tip

  • You can make chocolate milk or hot cocoa using this chocolate sauce! Simply whisk two tablespoons of your finished chocolate syrup into 8 ounces of cold or hot milk.

Can you deny that this recipe for chocolate syrup beats the pants off of the packaged stuff? We can’t wait to hear all about what you put your homemade chocolate sauce on! And while you’re at it, let us know what other store-bought goods you want to make from scratch.

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats.