Homemade Chocolate Syrup

My kids are obsessed with chocolate milk. Unfortunately, my eldest son is severely lactose intolerant. Chocolate coconut, almond, and soy milk are fine in a pinch but I do not like some of the ingredients in these cartons, specifically NATURAL FLAVORS and CARRAGGEENAN. Both look innocuous but the truth is that natural flavors are man made and can be animal derived. Carrageenan comes from red seaweed but it is processed and can cause inflammation in humans and studies found it to be carcinogenic to us as well. And forget about the premade syrup on the grocery store shelves. If you read the ingredient list, you will be hard pressed to even find real chocolate in it! So, after perusing Pinterest, I found a great homemade chocolate syrup recipe with all natural ingredients and nothing animal derived (skip the honey and use pure vanilla extract). The recipe is from Rebecca and her blog "Foodie With Family". It's delicious, easy to make and it sure does make a lot! The hardest part of this recipe was finding a bottle to put it in. I have to admit, I ate most of it off the spoon. Now where can I find a squeeze bottle?

Vegan Chocolate Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups water
• 3 cups raw sugar
• 1 ½ cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract (preferably homemade)
• ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup or agave

Instructions

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium-to-large saucepan stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in the remaining ingredients until the cocoa powder is also dissolved. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes. 

Pour the hot syrup through a fine mesh strainer and let cool to room temperature