Chocolate Sauce

My son is what you might call a picky eater. I guess it could be worse, but sometimes getting him to eat something new is a challenge that requires tricks and bribes. He is getting more and more bold as he gets older, but we have been and still have to disguise some foods in order for him to eat them. Milk is one of those foods.

I think for some children making the transition from breast milk to cow milk is difficult because breast milk is naturally much sweeter. Personally, I don't really mind if he decides to stop drinking milk completely at this point. I don't think he needs it now that he is eating a good amount of various amounts of food. I don't like milk, and never drank it growing up. When he was about 15 months though, he wasn't gaining any weight, and so we did what we could to get him to drink whole milk. That meant giving him chocolate milk. It worked like a charm. Now that he is a perfectly normal weight he doesn't drink milk that much, but I figured if I was going to be giving him chocolate syrup at such a young age I was going to make it myself.

Now I make it for when he does have milk, and to  just have around for special treats like ice cream!

It is so simple to make, which is why I don't even have to think twice about it anymore. I also find that I need a lot less of this syrup to make milk chocolaty than I do the commercial stuff. When you use quality ingredients, the flavors are more intense :).

You just blend 1 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp of salt, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan and mix until combined. Then put it on medium heat until it just comes up to a bubble. You don't want it to full on boil - just simmer a bit. Stir it and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. It is highly likely to overflow at this point - so watch it!

 Then once it is all combined you add 1 tsp. of vanilla.

Let it cool in the pot for a while, stirring every so often, and then pout into whatever container you want. I really want to get something with a pour spout, or maybe just clean out an old container with a squeeze spout, but for now we just put it in a jar and scoop it!

Yum!

Chocolate syrup:

1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything but vanilla in saucepan and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Let simmer gently, mixing constantly, for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Pour in vanilla and let cool.