Chocolate Milk

We just ran out of all the free Valentine's Day chocolate from my students earlier this week. We have had a constant stash of chocolate since Christmas, so this weekend Mike and I were going through withdrawal. This Saturday when we went to the store, we kept seeing all these yummy chocolate treats (bad idea to go to the store hungry) so we decided we could pick one item that wasn't on our list to get. We planned to get chocolate milk, our favorite. When we were about to grab the cartoon, we realized that we picked out this HUGE jar of pickles that were such a good deal. We went the practical route and got the pickles instead. That evening, we were still craving chocolate milk. I remember watching this episode on "Good Eats" about how to make your own chocolate milk syrup. Although I couldn't find that particular recipe, I came across this beauty. It made a quart size jar of chocolate syrup. It's not exactly like the ones at the store (it is more chocolatey and less sweet) but it sure filled the craving. In the course of 5 minutes, we drank half of gallon. Since it uses ingredients that we always have on hand, all I can say is we're addicts.

Here's the recipe
Homemade Chocolate Milk

First you make chocolate syrup:

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup cocoa, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 cups water. (I added a small splash of vanilla as well.) Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

To make chocolate milk, add 1 or 2 tbsp to a glass of cold milk. Or, however much you want. A large glass of milk will definitely need 3-4 tbsp. Stir and serve. Enjoy!