Monday's Menu

Upon posting the recipe for Hot Fudge, I realized I had never given you the recipe for Chocolate Syrup. It was one of the first such recipes I tried from Tightwad Gazette -- you know, ones that replaced products that were purchased in a store typically.

I began keeping it on hand quite a bit but not for sundaes. My children loved to squirt it into their milk and make chocolate milk with it. I even once made up a two quart pitcher of (from dry) milk and mixed in home made chocolate syrup for a birthday party. Not a single child complained. Yet I don't doubt that if I had suggested use of either those things to some of their parents, they would have vehemently asserted that their child would never drink it. A lot of that is our attitude about it more than the child's. But off my soap box.

If you want to use chocolate syrup in this way, you can clean out an old mustard container or such to store it in your fridge. Or most stores with a kitchen section sell a squirt bottle that you can use too. The only caution I would give is to allow the syrup to cool some before pouring it into one that is plastic. I have actually melted a few containers. It happened frequently enough that I began storing it in a glass jar. Until I found a plastic squirt bottle in the thrift store that I really wanted to use. Now I just let it cool.

Another tip that worked for us kept our children from squirting an inch or two of syrup into the glass. Teach them to squirt the syrup into a tablespoon and then mix with that spoon into the glass rather than watching it flow in random often wasteful (not to mention sugar laden) amounts into the glass.

Chocolate Syrup

1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the cocoa and water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Boil 3 minutes. Watch closely. Do not allow to boil over. Add the salt and vanilla. Pour into a sterilized pint jar and store covered in refrigerator. Keeps for several months.