When I posted a recipe for pumpkin pancakes many years ago, one of my lovely readers Brittany commented and shared a recipe for pumpkin maple syrup. Several other people mentioned in the comments that they made the syrup and loved it. That syrup has been on my mind ever since and I finally gave it a try last week!

Brittany’s version (click here and check out comment #3) is more pumpkiny and a little thicker, mine is more mapley and a little thinner (although still thicker than straight-up maple syrup). I served pumpkin maple syrup atop pumpkin pancakes, which was delicious! But I think this syrup would be equally as good (if not better!) served with regular pancakes. It is SCRUMPTIOUS STUFF, this syrup. Mmmmmmmm…

Pumpkin Maple Syrup

 

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Prep time

2 mins

Total time

2 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• ¾ cup pure maple syrup
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Simply whisk all the ingredients together!
2. Serve with pancakes, waffles or whatever your pumpkin-loving heart wants!

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Friends. I have quite a find for you today. A delicious, chocolatey find that I should have discovered long before now.

Years ago Nate and I were addicted to the show Good Eats, something I believe I have confessed before. One of the episodes I clearly remember was about making your own chocolate syrup. I wasn’t interested. I don’t really like chocolate syrup. I’ve never really liked it in chocolate milk (Nate disagrees with me on this count, for the record). I also had no desire to put it on ice cream. I’m a hot fudge girl! So, yeah, I didn’t think much about the recipe.

But the last few years I’ve been finding that sometimes I do wish I had a bottle of chocolate syrup in the fridge. It just comes in handy sometimes. But I want GOOD chocolate syrup, not the regular stuff you get at the store. I don’t actually hate the regular syrup, but, honestly, I’d just rather go without. To me, the taste isn’t worth the calories.

WELLLLL…Anna wanted me to figure out how to make a Starbucks drink that she’s obsessed with (recipe to come later this week!) and it involves chocolate syrup. So, remembering that Good Eats episode from long ago, I dug up the recipe and gave the syrup a try.

I compared a few recipes and decided Alton’s looked the best, so I just followed it verbatim. Heavens, this stuff is good. And the name cocoa syrup is much more fitting than simply chocolate syrup. It is rich and has a depth of flavor you don’t get with the usual “chocolate flavor” syrups out there. The cocoa syrup also has the exact same texture as a regular syrup, so it can serve all of your ‘syruppy’ needs. I have decided we will always have a bottle or two of this delectable stuff in the fridge. It, quite simply, is worth the calories.

So far we’ve used the syrup in milk and on ice cream. It was delicious both ways. A quick squeeze on the finger ain’t too bad, either.

When you make your chocolate milk, don’t be stingy with the syrup! The more the better. The chocolate milk reminded me a lot of the Cow Girl Creamery chocolate milk in San Francisco. Yep, it’s that good.

A note about the cocoa I use: For the last several years I have been using high-quality cocoa powder for baking. Scharffen Berger and Guittard have both been wonderful. Yes, it costs more. But it is WORTH IT. Trust me. I made the same exact chocolate cake for both Owen’s and Cate’s birthdays. Owen’s cake was made with the expensive cocoa while Cate’s used the regular cocoa you get at the store (I had to use it in a pinch). I kid you not, they tasted like I used a different recipe, and I have witnesses to back me up. Owen’s cake was amazing. Cate’s was good but nothing special. It was all about the cocoa.

Cocoa Syrup (aka Homemade Chocolate Syrup)

 

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From Alton Brown, Good Eats

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 1½ cups water
• 3 cups sugar
• 1½ cups Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Instructions

1. In a medium pot, stir together water and sugar and bring to a boil over high heat. Whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. (Jane note: I had everything measured and ready to go so I could whisk it all in at once.) Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce heat but make sure it’s still simmering and cook sauce until slightly thickened, 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly.
2. Cool to room temperature and pour into squeeze bottles. (Jane note: I bought Wilton squeeze bottles at Michaels, which work well. This recipe fills two of those bottles. HOWEVER”¦the opening is a bit small, so I’m going to be on the lookout for bottles with a larger hole, like you get for ketchup or mustard. I would just cut the ones I have, but then the caps won’t stay on.)
3. Refrigerate to store. Makes 24 ounces.

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I am a sucker for a beautiful container of berries. They’re just so pretty my wallet and I can’t resist. But half the time I forget I buy them and then the berries end up kind of sad. It’s a crime, really. But if my berries do reach this sorry state, I make good use of them…homemade saucy syrup (I can’t decide if it should be called sauce or syrup, hence saucy syrup.

I’ve made my saucy syrup with raspberries and blueberries. Most recently I made it from a small container of blackberries. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good. If I do say so myself. This homemade saucy syrup pairs beautifully with the texture of my new favorite waffle recipe – the waffles didn’t get soggy at all.

Sidenote: Baby’s Got Sauce by G. Love has been playing in my head while I write this post. Which automatically makes this post 10 times more fun.

Homemade Berry Saucy Syrup

 

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From Jane Maynard

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 1½ cups berries (one of those 5-6 oz containers) -OR- 1 C blueberries
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon corn starch whisked with enough water to make a slurry

Instructions

1. Bring the berries, sugar, water and lemon juice to a boil. Lower heat. Simmer for a 5-10 minutes, while slowly adding some of your cornstarch mixture. Add enough to get it to the consistency you like (the cornstarch makes it less watery). Refrigerate leftovers, if you have any!

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