Cocoa Syrup or Big Alton Brown Squeeze

Since it is covered in chocolate week on FN, which sounds kinda perverted to me, I wanted to discuss chocolate syrup and of course that would be the one Alton Brown featured in Art of Darkness II: Cocoa. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera card with my photos of the syrup cooking in the saucier, so you'll have to settle for an iPhone pic of it on ice cream. ;)

The need to make cocoa syrup stemmed from a peanut butter pie I made last summer for my mom. She put in a request for the next one (that's how I tell my food is good, she asks for another one) to have some type of chocolate sauce. Since seeing AB make what he called his Big Brown Squeeze (honestly he should called big AB squeeze because after making this I'll never go back to store bought and would like to hug him for that).

The only problem I saw was making this for mom was the sugar. I needed to swap the table sugar for Splenda but didn't know if that would change the texture or make up of the syrup. Before plunging headlong into the project, I researched other attempts at making chocolate syrup with Splenda. The results looked dismal. Most accounts where the sauce never thickened. These reports where from people using recipes found online and I remember one being from Betty Crocker.

Whatever these people did, one thing was certain, I was fully expecting a watery mess if I tried it. Nevertheless, being the relentless and stubborn gal I am, I just had to make AB's cocoa syrup with Splenda. By golly, that's what I did.

Staring with the simple syrup, I replaced the 3 cups of sugar with an equal amount of Splenda then whisked in 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and brought it to boil. After that added the 1.5 cups of Dutch processed cocoa powder and finally the 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. To my delight, the cocoa powder thickened the simple syrup nicely. I don't know what those other people did wrong with their recipes. I thought maybe it was the ratio of cocoa powder to water that caused it... who knows, maybe AB could tell me if he'd read this!

After cooling and placing into squeeze bottles, I tried it with milk. It makes the best chocolate milk around. Far superior to Hershey's and Nestle Quick. Mom got her pie with the sauce, she loved it. And made some hot chocolate with it, which she told me was even better than the hot chocolate mix I make every winter (Good Eat's cocoa mix of course).

And as you see from my lone photo, its darn fine on vanilla ice cream.

Cocoa Syrup

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups water
* 3 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Strain and cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottles. Squeeze into cold milk and stir for delicious chocolate milk or serve on your favorite ice cream. And, hey, it's fat free!