Why should you make your own chocolate orange sauce?
The other day I wanted to make sundaes with my kids. My real food journey has been pretty eye opening to say the least. I sent my husband to the local grocery store since we were out of homemade ice cream. I told him to take a look at the chocolate sauces and see if there were any that had ingredients that wouldn’t freak me out. While he was there he read the ingredients only to find all of them contained High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Ugh. Read why HFCS is bad for you here. I told him I would just make some.
Typical ingredient in chocolate sauce from the store:
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP; CORN SYRUP; WATER; COCOA; SUGAR; CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE); SALT; MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES; XANTHAN GUM; POLYSORBATE 60; VANILLIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR
It only took me about FIVE MINUTES to make it at home. Yes, it has sugar in it but it it made with REAL, ORGANIC GMO-FREE sugar. It makes about 3 cups of chocolate sauce so I divided it up into three little mason jars and flavored two of them and kept the third plain old wonderful chocolate. I used these squat mason jars so I could easily get at all of the chocolate sauce with a spoon or ladle. I used to love those chocolate orange balls growing up so chocolate orange sauce sounded amazing!
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups organic sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tbsps unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups organic whole milk
- 1 tbsp organic pure vanilla
- 6 drops of orange essential oil
Directions
- In a medium sauce pan add sugar, salt, cocoa, flour and 1/2 cup milk.
- Whisk in pan over medium low heat for about 2 minutes until it makes a thick chocolate paste.
- Add the rest of the milk.
- Whisk mixture while bringing to a boil (take about 2 minutes).
- Reduce heat and allow to simmer for a few more minutes (whisk occasionally).
- Remove from heat, add vanilla.
- Divide in half to create a plain option and a chocolate orange option.
- Add 6 drops of orange essential oil to one half of the chocolate.
Notes
I would keep this sauce for a maximum of 2 weeks in the fridge.
Photo credit: HandmadePicture
Since you are using organic ingredients for the chocolate orange sauce, what is the shelf life of the sauce? Thank you for your response!
I would keep this sauce for a maximum of 2 weeks in the fridge. Thanks!
Yum! What a smart mom, to take 5 minutes to save on side effects of commercial food!