MAKING CHOCOLATE 
(COFFEE) SYRUP
From Bear
This is almost too easy to make. You need:  
  • equal amounts of water and sweetener (for the simple syrup)  
  • good ground coffee                     
  • good powdered cocoa                                                                                                          
My recipe this time was:
  • 1 cup water
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 heaping tablespoon ground coffee
  • about 3/4 cup of powdered cocoa

Making Wake-Up Chocolate:

1. Mise-en-place: get your ingredients for the simple syrup measured out (below I have water, white sugar, and brown sugar). You can use any sweetener you want, but if you use honey, use a little bit less.
2. Heat the water over medium heat, then add the sugar(s) and stir until dissolved. Not only does using different sugars taste better to me, it makes a cool pattern while dissolving.
3. Measure coffee. (Theresa notes that if you aren't a coffee fan you can skip this step and just make plain chocolate syrup. She doesn't like coffee, but also says that it doesn't taste so bad added to chocolate.)
4. Add coffee to the still hot simple syrup. I used one heaping tablespoon of coffee. If you really like coffee, you could use as much as 3 tablespoons. Let it cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. If you like Turkish coffee, you can leave the coffee grounds in, but if you don't, strain them out after this step. (I left them in the first time I made this, but plan to remove them in the future. Turkish chocolate milk just didn't work for me.) 
5. Measure out the cocoa. To my surprise, when I first used it, I found that cocoa powder is bitter. Chocolate in its natural form is not naturally sweet, we add sweetener to make candy bars and other chocolate delights. Powdered cocoa can be found in the baking aisle and should come with directions on the container for how to make it into semi-sweet chocolate.
6. If you add the cocoa in while the simple syrup is hot, it will have a chunky and watery texture. If you let the simple sugar cool first, it will have a creamier texture, so it's easier to figure out how much cocoa to add.
7. Add cocoa to taste (I started with 1/2 a cup, then increased to around 3/4 cup). Be careful adding the powder, it takes a little time to saturate and if you stir it too fast it will go everywhere. 
8. This is what it looks like when you add the cocoa while the syrup is too hot. Later, when it cooled off and I stirred it, it had the proper creamy texture.
Cooled, looking good...
This is why you stir before using.

What Can You Do with Chocolate Coffee Syrup?

You can:
  • Make chocolate milk.
  • Use over ice cream (see our instructions for making the World's Best Honey Vanilla Ice Cream).
  • Use in meat marinades that call for chocolate syrup.
  • Put it in coffee.

And here are some Cook of Anarchy ideas that I haven't tried yet:
  • Add melted butter and coffee beans to make solid chocolate clusters.
  • Use it to flavor brandy or dark beer.

Unleash your inner Cook of Anarchy and come up with other ideas (then report back to me).
Picture
Anyone up for milk shots? Now.... be proper.