Wahoo! This is my 100th post! I’ve been quite prolific, haven’t I? Help me celebrate by entering my April giveaway here.
My son, A.J., really wanted some ice cream today, but the only ice cream I’d let him have is just plain old vanilla (and no sugar added, too). He really, really wanted to smother it with some Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I didn’t have any. I buy it occasionally (maybe once or twice a year), and when it’s gone, it’s gone. There’s no telling when I’ll buy it again. So it’s interesting that he would latch onto the idea of Hershey’s syrup like a dog with a stick.
Ice cream with knock-off Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
I could have told him, “Tough luck, sweetheart,” but I didn’t. I decided to be “nice” mom today and turned to my friend, Google, to find a knock-off recipe online. I found one on food.com (here) and tried it out. I followed the recipe exactly as written, so I’m not going to post it here. Feel free to follow the link if you have a hankering for chocolate syrup.
It took less than 10 minutes from start to finish, so it was super simple to make. I was a bit worried after making the syrup, because it was a lot thinner than Hershey’s syrup from the store. (Next time I’ll simmer it a little longer to let it thicken up.) But, once I tasted it, I could not tell one lick of difference between it and the original. I give it an A+ for flavor and a B for similarity in consistency.
Knock-off Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, freshly made.
Plus, it’s much less expensive than the Hershey’s syrup I buy at the store which goes for about $3 for a 24 ounce bottle. It made about 12 ounces of syrup and cost me a grand total of 66 cents! 42 cents for the cocoa, 16 cents for the sugar, 7 cents for the vanilla, and less than 1 cent for both the salt and the water. So, it costs me $1.32 for 24 ounces of the homemade knock-off Hershey’s syrup. I’m pretty happy about that! I can save money AND get my chocolate fix. Win-win!
Sound like something you want to make? Take a gander at my photo step-by-step to learn how.
As always, I assembled my ingredients. As one who bakes regularly, I have everything on hand all the time. Good news for my son who really, really wanted Hershey’s syrup, huh?
I measured the water, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt and put them in a saucepan.
I turned the heat on medium-high and began to whisk the ingredients together.
It took a couple of minutes, but soon enough it was smooth, so I switched to a wooden spoon.
As the mixture heated through and as I stirred, the foamy bubbles on top began to disappear.
Shortly thereafter, the mixture began to boil. I turned the heat down to medium, so it wouldn’t boil over. I stirred the boiling mixture for one minute. Then, I turned off the heat.
It’s beginning to look like chocolate syrup, isn’t it? I let the mixture cool for a few minutes.
Finally, I added the real vanilla extract and stirred it into the syrup.
It’s smooth and glossy and smelled so YUMMY!
So yummy, in fact, that I had a little ice cream too!
The syrup was still a little warm, so the ice cream started to melt. But it was OH SO GOOD!
I put the rest of the syrup into a Mason jar with a lid. I’m storing it in my fridge, but, with four sons, I don’t think it will last long. It’s a good thing it didn’t cost me very much money.
One thing I really loved about making this syrup is that it didn’t require any special equipment. Just a spoon, a pan, a measuring cup, and a measuring spoon. Very few dirty dishes + delicious chocolate = happy me.
After seeing how easy this is, will you make it?
