Chocolate Syrup

It's time for a classic ingredient that people often thought of as bought. Chocolate syrup. You generally see two versions of this on the store shelves: Hershey's and Nestle Quick. Both will do in a pinch, and those raised on a certain type of chocolate syrup will probably have a preference for that syrup. Still, you have a few of the usual advantages making it at home:

• You can control the ingredients. If you have a favorite type of cocoa powder, or you want to ensure that your cocoa is fair trade, or you want your sugar to be carbon neutral, or whatever, you can do that if you make it yourself. You have limited opportunity to do that with most store bought syrups.
• You control the flavor. Want a spicy chocolate syrup? Add some chili pepper. Want a thin mint chocolate syrup? Add some peppermint extract. Your call entirely. You can adulterate the flavor of a commercial syrup to a point, but you have more opportunities to do so when you control the whole process.
• Bragging rights. "Yes, of course I make my own chocolate syrup. Don't you? It's the easiest thing in the world.

And, of course, it is terribly easy. Melt some sugar into some water, add flavorings, and reduce.

In case that went by too quickly, you melt some sugar into water to make the simple syrup:

Mix in your flavors:

And reduce:

Some things worth noting are that flavors included cocoa powder (dutch processed is preferred, but I used a blend of various powders because I didn't have enough of any one powder to make the whole batch), vanilla extract, and some chili powder. The ancho chili powder really is far too mild, though so it hardly added anything to the flavor or the heat. Because you are reducing a simple syrup, you also add some corn syrup in, which keeps the whole thing from crystalizing accidentally. I don't think you're going to reduce the syrup enough to really concentrate it enough for crystallization, but it doesn't hurt to add a bit of corn syrup.

I used my extra-strong, spiced rum vanilla extract, pictured above with the corn syrup.

Once everything was done, I packaged it up into a handy container. I didn't have a squeeze bottle handy, or I would have used one of those.

For the recipe, I used one of my standby sources, Good Eats. The Good Eats Cocoa Syrup seemed like a good bet for what I wanted. I was fast and loose with the measurements of most of the flavorings, but it was good for the handy relative amounts of water, sugar, and cocoa powder. By volume, you're using 1 : 1 : 2 water : cocoa : sugar. Be sure to add in a couple tablespoons of corn syrup and some salt, but the rest is really up to you.

Cupcakes, Out of the Box

I'll admit it. I love funfetti. It's not even an ironic love of the product. It's so easy, you get consistent results, and you have melted sprinkles in the batter. How cool is that? 

Alas, the name of the blog is not, "A Year From Boxes," so there will be no funfetti in this recipe. I didn't even have the forethought to include sprinkles in. Maybe next time. In the mean time, lets do the ingredient shot.

Standard fare, as usual. It does require either cocoa powder, or melted chocolate. Really your choice. Interestingly, for all the cupcake recipes out there, I started this recipe using the basic Ruhlmanian Ratio for sponge cake: 1 part (by weight) each of butter, flour, sugar and egg. I honed in on 4 ounces for this recipe, though it left me a cupcake or two short. That's about 1 cup of flour, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar and two large eggs. I threw in 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, too. I also had to use about 1/2 a cup of milk (amusingly, also 4 ounces, but your milage may vary with how much milk you have to add).

Cream the butter and sugar. 

That was a link to the post about chocolate chip cookies that goes into more detail about creaming butter and sugar. There's no real need to rehash that here. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Giving them a good minute between eggs and before mixing in anything else. Add in the vanilla.

Mix up the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a separate bowl.

While continuing to beat the batter, mix in the flour mixture. 

If the batter looks too dry, add in some milk. As I mentioned above. I used about 1/2 a cup in the batter when all was said and done. This is one of those judgment calls that you get more used to the more you bake. Remember the worst thing that happens is you add in a little more flour, or toss the batter and start over.

Pour or spoon the batter into baking cups and bake at 375F for 15-17 minutes until it passes the toothpick test.

Let cool, top them with icing (next week), and serve.

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup milk

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 375, prep a muffin pan with baking cups.

2. Cream the butter and sugar.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, leaving one minute between additions.

5. Add the vanilla.

6. Mix in the flour mixture. Adding the milk as needed to keep the batter soft.

7. Pour the batter into the baking cup and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry.

8. Let cool, top with icing, and serve.