Chocolate Syrup
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup on the left, Homemade Chocolate Syrup on the right
Chocolate milk made with syrups: Hershey’s on the left, Homemade on the right
As I’ve mentioned before, I have a hard time getting enough calcium in my diet because of my aversion to drinking milk. Mix milk with coffee in a good latte or cappuccino and i’ll drink it all day long, but plain milk just tastes gross to me. There is one other way I can bear to down a glass of milk – when it’s mixed with chocolate (because everything tastes better with chocolate, right?). I normally just stir some Ovaltine into my milk but I recently came across this recipe or homemade chocolate syrup and decided to give it a try. I bought a bottle of classic Hershey’s chocolate syrup, made a batch of homemade and we had a family taste test! Here’s the re pie I used for the homemade syrup, adapted from myplasticfreelife.com:
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugars, cocoa and salt until no lumps remain. Slowly add the water, whisking constantly.
- Turn on the heat under the pan to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and continue to simmer for a few minutes, whisking to prevent scorching, until the mixture thickens slightly. It will thicken further as it cools.
- Cool syrup to room temperature before stirring in the vanilla. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
For the comparison, we did a blind taste test of the syrups by themselves and stirred into a glass of milk. We used 1 Tablespoon of syrup per cup of milk. The homemade syrup was darker and runnier than the Hershey’s syrup (it’s hard to see this in the photos; it is very difficult to take pictures of chocolate syrup!). Also, it dissolved much more quickly in the milk. There were definitely differences in flavor as well. The Hershey’s syrup had a very sweet, sugary flavor while the homemade syrup was richer and more chocolaty. While the adults in our taste test preferred the flavor of the homemade syrup, our 4-year old definitely liked the Hershey’s syrup better.
Price is not an issue in this comparison as both syrups cost about $1 per cup. Of course, the homemade syrup takes more effort than just buying a bottle of store bought but it certainly is not a difficult or time consuming recipe. A few basic ingredients and 10 minutes are all that is required. I also like that the homemade version is all-natural with none of the additives found in the store-bought syrup. I, for one, will not be returning to my Ovaltine ways any time soon!
Bottom Line: Homemade chocolate syrup is surprisingly easy to make, as cheap as Hershey’s brand, and has a rich, chocolaty flavor.