Learn how easy it is to make chocolate sauce with cocoa powder, sugar and water!
When we first got married, my husband and I did everything you aren’t supposed to do as newlyweds. We moved 2,000 miles away from everyone we knew for one of us to take a new job. Â I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time!
I dug in to learning how to make everything in my kitchen from scratch. Chocolate sauce made with cocoa powder was one of the first homemade recipes I tried – mostly because it looked fail proof to me. We didn’t really need chocolate syrup, but now we would always have it on hand.
How to Make Chocolate Sauce with Cocoa Powder
Once we had kids making homemade chocolate sauce was a great way to save some money on making homemade chocolate milk.  Then I discovered I could use it to make homemade Irish cream and my favorite dessert ever this chocolate mint brownie recipe.
The chocolate sauce is also great over homemade no churn vanilla ice cream and then topped with homemade whipped cream.  Kids have a blast putting all these recipes together to create a truly homemade ice cream sundae.
Making chocolate sauce with cocoa powder requires pantry  basic ingredients.  The recipe calls for cocoa powder, sugar and water.  Add in a little salt to bring out the sweetness and homemade vanilla extract to balance the chocolate.   That’s it!  The chocolate syrup is ready to go in about 5 minutes.  Just let it cool to room temperature before you make your first glass of chocolate milk!
Use a canning  funnel to cleanly pour the chocolate sauce in to pint sized canning jars.  I store mine in the fridge out of habit, but I don’t think it’s necessary to refrigerate it.
Homemade Chocolate Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 Tablespoon homemade vanilla extract
Instructions
In a small pan, whisk together cocoa and sugar.
Add water and salt and stir to mix.
Heat mixture over medium heat until boiling.
Continue to boil until mixture thickens, about 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Once sauce is cooled, add vanilla and stir to combine.
First time making anything like this. Will it be thick enough to stick to no bake p’nut butter cookies or the like? How long will it stay good in the fridge?
No, it is thin like a chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk. You are thinking of more of a ganache. I usually only make enough for what we need so it only stays around for maybe a week. But it may stay fine longer than that.
holiday emergency,I was making homemade buckeyes ,Whole 11 dozen,I ran out of the melted chocolate.I found your homemade chocolate sauce.I was wondering if I could use yours as a substitute.
Probably not. This is very thin. But you could add some coconut oil and that may help it harden up!
What if I add a little cornstarch mixed in cold water to thicken it even more?
It’s generally fairly thin like Hershey’s chocolate syrup. It’s not meant to be thick like a hot fudge sauce, which has a heavy cream base.
Oh yeaaahhh that will work marvelously MHM I LOVE The Idea YUHS GURLLLL
As these kids say these days: SHEEEESH.
Hi thank you for sharing this recipe with us I have only one question can I use one cup of evaporated milk instead of water ??
Thanks again
Hi Fadwa, I have no idea! But it’s worth a try.
Hello! About how long does the syrup last? *self life
This recipe works as is in terms of the ingredients, but it will definitely take more than ten minutes, and it has to be higher than low. Maybe like medium, then turned down to medium low after it starts boiling so that it has a simmer. Then keep simmering it until it thickens (as the recipe said). It took about a half hour for mine to get a syrupy texture. You can tell because the simmering bubbles start to get thicker as the water evaporates. I’m not sure that whisking it around during this time is incredibly important. I left it alone a lot of the time and it didn’t burn the bottom of the sauce pan or anything.
Were you able to get it thick this way? I generally leave mine on the thin side. Good to know it didn’t burn!
This looks so good and I love making chocolate syrup, too. I think that once someone tries home-made they’ll never go back to Hersheys!
Thanks so much for sharing this with us at Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
Thank you for posting your homemade chocolate sauce. Can I make it using Splenda or Coconut sugar?
I have honestly never used either but my understanding is that Splenda can be used successfully in place of sugar. I’m not sure how either one melts into liquid. Sugar has to be heated to blend in or it’s grainy, but if you don’t mind the graininess, then I’m sure they would work! Let me know if you try!
Omg, this is genius! I constantly have cocoa powder around, so this is completely perfect! I hate buying chocolate sauce. Pinning and stumbling!!
I love your version of homemade chocolate sauce. I actually made some earlier last week too 🙂
Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday.
Your co host form Nosh My Way.
Thank you for sharing this! I’ve been making homemade Nesquick, but I keep meaning to look for a chocolate sauce recipe. Pinned!
I have a hard time keeping this around, it’s so yummy!