Investments

Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café—Chocolate Syrup


My plan when I went to bed one night last week was to spend the following
morning working in the yard.  High winds
and rain woke me at four o’clock and suggested time in the kitchen might be a
little more enjoyable.  Especially if
chocolate was involved.

All of the craziness with supply chain issues and the world
situation in general has been prompting us to double down on efforts to become
better prepared.  More food, more skills,
more firewood, more meds, more gas.  You
know how it goes. 

I’m definitely wishing I’d gotten more sriracha sauce, as
the primary manufacturer in the US won’t be making anymore until next
year.  I had planned to buy a few extra
bottles, but then decided I could make my own. 
Unfortunately, that plan isn’t working out so well.  My serrano pepper plant hasn’t given me more
than a couple red peppers, and while the jalapeno plants are doing well, they
haven’t yielded a single red pepper either. 
And freezing temperatures are probably only two weeks away.  I’m afraid I’m out of luck there.  I should have bought the extra bottles.  Sigh.

Anyway, you never know what’s going to be problematic
next.  It truly is reaching a point where
we have to be prepared to make just about everything from scratch.  It’s not necessarily a bad idea.  You simply must have the recipes and the raw
ingredients.

Fortunately, the ingredients for chocolate syrup are
entirely shelf stable (depending on the recipe you choose).  Gotta have chocolate.  These chocolate syrups are great for topping
ice cream and other desserts, and they are also a great substitute for those
who haven’t yet stored the Dutch process cocoa essential for making your own
hot chocolate and chocolate milk mixes at home. 
The only downside is that these ones require refrigeration.

Chocolate Syrup #1

1 tablespoon
coconut oil

2
tablespoons cocoa powder

3
tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon
powdered milk

¼ cup water

 

Combine the
cocoa, sugar, and powdered milk in a small saucepan and stir well.  Stir in the water, whisking to remove lumps,
and add the coconut oil.  Cook and stir
over low heat.  Refrigerate leftovers.

 

Family
reviews:  This small batch is a little
runny, but it tastes fine and mixes well into chocolate milk or hot chocolate.

 

Chocolate Syrup #2

2 cups sugar

½ cup cocoa
powder

¼ cup
powdered milk

1 cup water

1/8 teaspoon
salt

¼ teaspoon
vanilla extract

 

Over
medium-low heat, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, and powdered milk in a large
saucepan and stir well.  Stir in the
water, whisking well to remove lumps. 
Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 3 minutes, watching carefully to prevent
boiling over.  Remove from heat and stir
in the salt and vanilla.  Pour into a
canning jar and store in the refrigerator.

 

Family
reviews:  Tastes just like Hershey’s in
the can.  Makes great chocolate
milk. 

 

Finally, we have a recipe
posted by one of our readers here that uses entirely shelf-stable ingredients
without powdered milk for those who are allergic or lactose-intolerant.

 

Genevieve’s Chocolate Syrup

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Hershey’s cocoa

1/8 teaspoon
salt

1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Add water and mix until
smooth. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly to
prevent it from boiling over. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.  If the syrup is too thin, boil it for another
minute or so to thicken.  Storing it in
the refrigerator will also help thicken it.

 

Family reviews:  This one tastes quite a bit better than the
first two.  OK, substantially better, not that the others are bad.  We all (Aaron, Becky, and I) agree that this is just the best.

 

Observations:  First off, all three recipes will satisfy
chocolate cravings and make acceptable hot chocolate and chocolate milk.  Before testing, I thought the first recipe
would be my favorite.  I figured the
coconut oil would add a bit of richness to my hot chocolate.  I also assumed that the powdered milk would
contribute in a positive way.  I truly
did not expect to like Genevieve’s recipe best. 
It lacked both coconut oil and powdered milk.  However the addition of a full teaspoon of
vanilla extract totally sent this recipe over the top.  It also had a greater percentage of cocoa
powder, which certainly didn’t hurt.

 

The bottom
line is, use whatever recipe you have the ingredients for, but if you’ve got
everything for Genevieve’s Chocolate Syrup, that’s the way to go.

 

Notes: 
While the type of cocoa used is important in many recipes, with syrups
this is not the case.  Use whatever cocoa
powder you have on hand.

 

Also, do not run your own taste tests on these three syrups in the evening, and trying them both as chocolate milk and hot chocolate, or even just licking the spoons.  Though quite delicious, the weird dreams just may not be worth it.  I had some doozies.

 

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