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    Home » Recipes » Desserts

    Homemade Chocolate Sauce Recipe

    Published: Nov 11, 2020 Modified: Aug 12, 2022 by Kristin King / This post may contain affiliate links

    Jump to Recipe | Pin Recipe
    Close up shot of a strawberry being dipped into a bowl of chocolate sauce with more chocolate strawberries in the background.
    Side shot of chocolate sauce being drizzled into a clear jar with a blue plaid cloth and spoons in the background.
    Side view of chocolate sauce being drizzled into a clear glass with a blue plaid cloth and spoons in the background.

    This homemade chocolate sauce is rich, delicious, easy to make, and much better than store-bought chocolate syrup!

    Side view of chocolate sauce being drizzled into a clear glass with a blue plaid cloth and spoons in the background.
    This rich and delicious chocolate sauce recipe is super quick and easy to make!
    Jump to:
    • 👩🏻‍🍳 Why You'll Love This Homemade Chocolate Sauce
    • 🥘 Ingredients Needed
    • 🔪 Instructions
    • 👪 FAQs
    • 📖 Variations and Serving Suggestions
    • 🥗 Suggested Desserts
    • 🍫 Additional Chocolate Recipes
    • Chocolate Sauce Recipe
    • 📋 Recipe Card
    • Best Homemade Chocolate Sauce
    • 💬 Reviews and Comments

    👩🏻‍🍳 Why You'll Love This Homemade Chocolate Sauce

    It is hard to go wrong with chocolate sauce, whether you buy it from the store or make it yourself. But my family agrees with me that this recipe produces a higher level of chocolatey deliciousness. The rich flavor is just divine!

    The only problem is that now we can never go back to store-bought chocolate sauce, ha! But that is OK, because this chocolate sauce is not difficult at all to make.

    The secret to making this sauce so delicious is to use coffee instead of water. It doesn't make the sauce taste like coffee, but it adds a depth and complexity to the sauce that is a perfect complement to the sweetness of all that sugar.

    And, yes, there is a lot of sugar in this. It's a dessert, folks! Just don't eat spoonful after spoonful of it, as hard as it might be to resist that! A simpler version of Easy Chocolate Glaze with Powdered Sugar can also be made.

    🥘 Ingredients Needed

    Overhead shot of ingredients- coffee, maple syrup, cocoa powder, sugar, chocolate chips, brown sugar, and salt.
    This homemade chocolate sauce recipe is super quick and easy to prepare in a hurry!
    • cocoa powder - gives your chocolate syrup a rich, chocolatey taste.
    • white and brown sugar - two different kinds of sugar bring different kinds of sweetness.
    • salt - helps balance out all of the sweetness.
    • coffee - gives your chocolate sauce a deeper and more complex flavor.
    • maple syrup - for a little bit of extra sweetness.
    • semisweet morsels - ensures that the sauce has some thickness to it.

    🔪 Instructions

    Six panel collage of process shots- whisking together ingredients, bringing to a boil and simmering, and allow cooling.
    Your homemade chocolate sauce recipe will be ready in less than five minutes!
    1. Mix together the cocoa powder, sugar, brown sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.
    2. Pour in the coffee and stir until combined.
    3. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and continue to stir while simmering for 5 minutes.
    4. Remove the mixture from the heat and add your maple syrup and semisweet morsels, then mix until everything is melted and combined.
    5. Allow to cool and serve however you like!
    6. This sauce is good on fruit, ice cream, as a dip for cookies or graham crackers, and more.

    👪 FAQs

    What is the best chocolate syrup?

    Homemade, of course!

    What's the difference between chocolate sauce and chocolate syrup?

    Typically, they're mostly the same, although sometimes chocolate syrup also includes corn syrup, which gives it a thinner, more syrup-y consistency. Chocolate sauce, then, tends to be on the thicker side.

    Does homemade chocolate sauce need to be refrigerated?

    It will keep longer if stored covered in the fridge, but it will last at least a couple of days at room temperature if stored properly. The sauce will thicken considerably in the cold, but you can microwave it to thin it out again.

    How do you thicken chocolate sauce?

    One way is to allow the temperature to come down; when hot, the sauce will be much runnier, but at room temperature or chilled it will be much thicker.

    You could also take about a tablespoon of corn starch, dissolve it in water, and stir it into the sauce. This will probably work best in the heating step, but play around with adding it afterward as well and see what happens!

    Finally, if you include more chocolate morsels, odds are the sauce will be on the thicker (and more chocolate-y!) side.

    How long can you keep homemade chocolate sauce?

    Kept covered in the fridge, your chocolate sauce should be good for 3 months or so. You can also freeze it if you do so carefully, and it can last up for a year like this. Just be sure to store it in an airtight container. It may also be wise to press a layer of plastic wrap to the surface, which can help prevent crystallizing.

    Can I can or jar this sauce?

    If you follow the correct process, it's completely safe to do so! Check out more information here if you want to give away chocolate sauce as a gift or sell your homemade sauce!

    Close up shot of a strawberry being dipped into a clear bowl of chocolate sauce with more chocolate covered strawberries in the background.
    Rich and delicious, this homemade chocolate sauce will impress your family!

    📖 Variations and Serving Suggestions

    • While this sauce would be delicious just eaten by the spoonful, you'll get the most use out of it for dipping and coating things like fruit, cookies, marshmallows, and ice cream.
    • You could also stir this into some milk to make a delicious chocolate beverage. Microwave it for a homemade hot cocoa!
    • Toss in a little bit of butter to give your sauce a new level of richness.
    • The coffee in this sauce doesn't come through much in the flavor, so if you'd like to accentuate it sprinkle in some espresso powder.
    • A few drops of an extract of your choice could change up this sauce entirely. Some mint extract would be great for Christmas or even St. Patrick's Day, and an orange or hazelnut extract will change up the flavor of this sauce deliciously!

    🥗 Suggested Desserts

    This chocolate sauce would be a decadent addition to these desserts! Drizzle it on top of this Chocolate Orange Cake or try it on another recipe, like Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats!

    Raspberry Frozen Yogurt
    Super-easy, fresh, and fruity frozen yogurt ready in just a few minutes!
    Close up shot of raspberry frozen yogurt sprinkled with chocolate chips in a white bowl with raspberries sprinkled around.
    Pumpkin Spice Cake
    This moist pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting is a simple but delicious cake, perfect for fall and pumpkin season.
    Pumpkin spice cakes with cream cheese frosting on a chopping board.
    White Chocolate Dipped Coffee Shortbread Cookies
    Delicious, elegant holiday shortbread cookies made with real coffee, dipped in white chocolate, and dusted with instant coffee powder!
    Close up shot of white chocolate dipped coffee shortbread cookies on a drying rack on a burlap cloth.

    🍫 Additional Chocolate Recipes

    If this chocolate syrup recipe has you craving more chocolate, try out some of these recipes!

    • Side view of Guinness chocolate cake in a white bowl with forks and a glass in the background.
      Guinness Chocolate Cake: Super Easy Recipe
    • Side shot of whole chocolate pretzel monkey bread on a white plate on a wooden table.
      Chocolate Pretzel Monkey Bread
    • Side shot of two dark chocolate black bean brownies stacked on a white plate.
      Dark Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

    Chocolate Sauce Recipe

    Love this recipe? Awesome! Please give it a 5 star ⭐ rating below! And if you make this, snap a photo and tag me on Instagram. You can find me at DizzyBusyandHungry or #dizzybusyandhungry!

    📋 Recipe Card

    Side view of chocolate sauce being drizzled into a clear glass with a blue plaid cloth and spoons in the background.

    Best Homemade Chocolate Sauce

    Recipe Author: Kristin
    Rich, delicious, easy to make, and much better than store-bought!
    5 from 11 votes
    Print Recipe Share by Email Bookmark Saved!
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    Cook Time 10 minutes mins
    Total Time 15 minutes mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Servings 12
    Calories 137 kcal

    Ingredients
     

    • ¾ cup cocoa powder
    • ¾ cup sugar
    • ¾ cup brown sugar
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • 1 cup cold coffee (can be decaf or regular)
    • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    • ¼ cup semisweet morsels
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions
     

    • In a medium saucepan, mix the cocoa powder, sugar, brown sugar, and salt.
      ¾ cup cocoa powder, ¾ cup sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt
    • Add the coffee and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
      1 cup cold coffee, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    • Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring it to boiling, stirring constantly.
    • Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, continuing to stir.
    • Remove from heat and the semisweet morsels, stirring until they are all melted.
      ¼ cup semisweet morsels
    • Allow to cool and serve over ice cream, fruit, etc.
    • Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator. It will get very thick when cold, but you can microwave it briefly to get a thinner sauce.

    Notes

    • Don't have brewed coffee handy? Go ahead and dissolve a rounded teaspoon of instant into one cup of water. No need to even heat it up!
    • Note that it takes quite a bit of whisking to get the cocoa powder to incorporate. And even then a lot of it seems to sit on top. Don't worry about it, just keep going, it will eventually all come together.
    • Drizzle this sauce on fruit, cookies, ice cream and more.
    • Mix your chocolate syrup into some milk for a delicious chocolate-y beverage. You could also microwave this for hot chocolate.
    • For added richness, stir in a tablespoon or so of butter.
    • Add espresso powder if you want to accentuate the coffee flavor.
    • Using flavored extracts can change the flavor of this sauce. Try mint, orange, or hazelnut to get different variations of this sauce.

    Video

    Nutrition

    Calories: 137kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 54mg | Potassium: 131mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 27g | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1.1mg

    Nutritional information is an estimate. The nutritional values for your final dish may vary based on measuring differences and products used.

    Want to make cooking even easier?Sign up here to receive FREE DBH exclusive content, including my favorite kitchen shortcuts and hacks, and unlock access to the DBH resource library with many other free downloads!

    Update Notes: This post was originally published in May 2015, but was republished with tips, step by step photos, and a recipe change in November 2020.

    Thanks so much for reading! I also invite you to follow me on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, or INSTAGRAM to keep up with what's going on in my kitchen.

    And you might want to check out my Dizzy Busy and Hungry store on Amazon for a whole bunch of great kitchen products I love!

    Happy cooking!

    Close up of a signature of Kristin.

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Joanne/WineLady Cooks

      July 26, 2015 at 5:47 pm

      5 stars
      Your recipe sounds so easy I definitely will give it a try - I do love chocolate!

      Reply
    2. Kathy @ Beyond the Chicken Coop

      June 16, 2015 at 4:33 pm

      I need to give this a try. I won't tell anyone there's coffee though....otherwise they will say that's all they will taste. I like to keep a few secrets!

      Reply
    3. Adelina Priddis

      June 04, 2015 at 9:00 am

      delicious! I love homemade chocolate sauce. Thanks for sharing on Weekend Bites

      Reply
    4. Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai

      May 31, 2015 at 9:48 pm

      Okay, what's not to LOVE! Your chocolate sauce looks wonderful, and the recipe certainly seems easy enough. Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty - we love partying with you! Hope to see you next Friday. 🙂

      ~Lorelai
      Life With Lorelai

      Reply
    5. Tianna

      May 29, 2015 at 12:15 pm

      5 stars
      this looks delicious! thanks for sharing ♥

      Reply
    6. Evija

      May 29, 2015 at 6:20 am

      This looks lovely ! give me chocolate sauce and strawberries any day! Thank you for sharing and joining our Oh My Heartsie Girl Wordless Wednesday Link Party.. Have a great day, co-host Evija @Fromevijawithlove x

      Reply
    7. Barbara | Creative Culinary

      May 28, 2015 at 12:50 pm

      Sounds great; I love making my own chocolate sauce but between us girls? Yes, so agree about the coffee but I might slip in a bit of bourbon too. 🙂

      Reply
      • Kristin King

        May 28, 2015 at 6:20 pm

        Ah, great idea! I am going to try that! 🙂

        Reply
    8. Choclette

      May 28, 2015 at 12:38 pm

      This looks so good I want to go and make chocolate sauce right away. I bet the coffee gives it a bit of a kick.

      Reply
    9. Carole West - Garden Up Green

      May 26, 2015 at 8:11 am

      Strawberries and chocolate- how can you go wrong. This looks really good a sweet treat once in awhile is necessary.
      Carole

      Reply
    10. krista

      May 20, 2015 at 11:27 am

      This looks delicious! I've wanted to make homemade chocolate syrup for a long time, I'll have to try this. Does it dissolve well in milk?

      Reply
    Newer Comments »

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    👋 Hey there, I'm Kristin! As a full-time working wife and mom, my life is such a whirlwind, it makes me dizzy sometimes! So I have been working to develop quick, easy, family-friendly recipes for 20+ years, and this site is where I share them with you! Happy cooking!

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