With a few minutes of time and a few basic pantry ingredients, you can whip together a chocolate syrup that is so unbelievably good it doesn’t even deserve the same name as the store-bought kind. That’s why it’s called Intensely Chocolate Syrup, not ordinary old grocery store syrup. 🙂

It’s so good, that you’ll feel sorry for every poor creature out there who has never had the opportunity to taste this elixir. It’s so good, you’ll want to force it on your friends, neighbors, coworkers…but wait – that would mean you’d Have. To. Share. We can’t have that now, can we? I know you’ll agree after your first taste!

About Intensely Chocolate Syrup:

So maybe you’ll just want to pass this recipe on to any friends, those undeserving cretins, those lesser mortals who know not what they are missing, and keep your Intensely Chocolate Syrup all to your enlightened self. (see note.)

Luckily, Intensely Chocolate Syrup is an affordable luxury…and takes just minutes to make.

Best of all, this has very few ingredients you won’t recognize: Cocoa, Sugar, Water, and a scant two tablespoons of Corn Syrup (it helps make this a bit thicker and prevents crystallization. It could be left out in a pinch if you are going to use it all – almost a quart – right away but I wouldn’t recommend it, and a touch of Vanilla.

Note: Hide special items in your veggie bins, covered by whatever veggies you have! 🙂

Making Intensely Chocolate Syrup:

When you make this syrup, use a saucepan that’s a bit bigger than you think you might need. As the mixture cooks it enlarges in volume and bubbles up. Keep your eye on it – well not right on it, that’d be a little on the warm side, but keep a close watch. It can boil over in seconds. If it looks in danger of doing so, stir it ASAP and move it part way off the heat until you have a chance to free up a hand to turn the burner down.

The other thing to keep in mind is that as this syrup cooks, it will leave a residue of cocoa above the liquid line. I stir that in with a rubber spatula as it cooks but if it is still there when your syrup is finished don’t go through any heroics trying to incorporate it back into the syrup. It could cause some crystallization despite the corn syrup. Remember I mentioned above that preventing those crystals from forming is part of the job the corn syrup plays in this chocolate syrup.

This does take little time to make, but quite a while to cool. When you first take this off the stove, it’s a good idea to transfer it to a clean dish. Something like a Pyrex (they can take the heat) bowl or even another saucepan. Place a DRY towel under it if it is on the counter because the chocolate syrup will be intensely hot. Sugar has a higher boiling point than water – 320 to 360 degrees F. as opposed to 212 degrees F. It goes without saying, do not lick the spoon! Actually, you’ll want to use a rubber spatula to get every drop, leaving behind any hardened residue.

It’s best to cool it to room temperature, then place it in the fridge. Once it has cooled completely stir it (there may be a little film on top, but that’s ok, it will dissolve in) and then cover. That keeps condensation from forming on your chocolate syrup.

Storing:

Store your Intensely Chocolate Syrup in the fridge; you’ll notice it thickens up nicely once cool. It’s nice to have it in a squeeze bottle, but the recipe makes almost 4 cups, a quart, so you might like to divide and place part of it in a glass jar and part in a squeeze bottle (make sure the syrup is cool before putting it in plastic) and then refill the squeeze bottle as necessary.

This will keep, literally, for weeks with no problem. The sugar preserves the syrup with no additional additives needed.

Let’s Talk About the Cocoa:

For years my favorite cocoa to use for this recipe was Hershey’s Special Dark. It was a blend of Dutch-processed and plain old cocoa powder. In 2023, they switched the ingredients and now it is 100 percent (to my understanding) Dutch processed.

Now I use 1/2 Dutch-processed and 1/2 plain old cocoa powder; I much prefer the flavor, which mimics the old Hershey’s Special Dark. The two powders together give a range of complexity that isn’t there when just one or the other is used. I think just regular cocoa is too light and Dutch is too intense. Either will work here, though. See Sally’s Baking Addiction for more discussion.

Spray the spoon you’ll measure the Corn Syrup in with a little oil and the syrup will slide out with no problem.

Let’s Talk About the Corn Syrup:

These days it seems like the two ugliest cooking terms are hydrogenated oil and corn syrup. Rest easy that this is regular old light corn syrup, not high fructose in this recipe; the high fructose is the one you really want to watch out for.

Which is not to say that there is anything healthy about corn syrup but with three cups of sugar, well – let’s not kid ourselves that this is health food! Still, I’d take bets on this over the chocolate syrup in the brown bottle, which has both high fructose corn syrup, regular corn syrup, and a whole slew of additives.

The best time to find a great price on corn syrup is before any big baking holiday when it will likely be on sale. It keeps practically forever, literally years, in a dark, cool cupboard, and if you’re worried this might be a one-off ingredients, there are a lot of “treat” type recipes that call for a little – caramel corn comes to mind immediately. Just make sure the lip of the bottle and the lid are pristinely clean before closing it up or you may never get it open again.

Saving Money on Intensely Chocolate Syrup:

We talked about saving $$ on the corn syrup; the same principle applies to almost any baking item. The exception is usually spices and extracts. I’ll cover that quickly under vanilla. Get in the habit of timing your purchases when the items are at a low rather than when you need them and you’ll always save money.

At the Grocery:

If buying baking goods at the regular old grocery store, your best bet is to buy during a sale, and those sales generally happen just before holidays, especially big baking holidays. Those are Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There will be sales also before Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day; those generally do not have as many sales and the sales are often not as good. See my post Win at the Grocery – it has a short discussion and at the bottom of the page are clickable menus that lead to each holiday with a list of what will likely be on sale.

Discount Groceries:

Aldi and Lidl are fabulous places to pick up many baking items at a great price. The selection of baking goods isn’t always great but they’ll have the basics. Some items will be brand names while others may not; you’ll just need to check. The selection of herbs, spices, and extracts is not great. They will generally have vanilla.

Buyer’s Clubs:

Again, these are great places to buy but the pricing may not be as great as the grocery holiday sale pricing but you a) won’t have to wait for a sale and b) you’ll save over a grocery’s regular pricing. Prices on herbs, spices, and extracts are usually very good; the selection is not great but the basics are there.

This is a Catalina. It is usually generated by your buying habits and notifies you of upcoming opportunities for sales, usually money back. They are slowly going by the wayside.

Spices, Herbs & Extracts:

While these may be at low during the holiday baking sales, a great time to buy any of the above (which includes vanilla) is during the spring. The big houses, including McCormicks, have sales, and those sales often include Catalinas. Catalinas are those slips that print out with your receipts, often triggered by something you’ve bought, giving you a heads-up on an upcoming sale.

Combined with coupons, the Catalina sales can save you a beaucoup $. How much? Vanilla prices have gone sky-high and for several years I have paid nothing for mine and I use a good amount of it. Watch your coupon matching sites specifically for these spring sales in case you haven’t bought an item that has triggered a Catalina.