Healthy Homemade Chocolate Milk

Okay, so maybe it’s not health food, but it’s much less UNhealthy than any store-bought stuff.  That makes for a long post title, though, so I’m calling it “healthy.”

We gave up the bottled Hershey’s syrup long ago and pretty much never have chocolate milk, but some school days are extra trying and call for some kind of happy diversion.  We had one such day last week, and just before lunch prep it occurred to me to surprise the kids with something special—a healthier version of chocolate syrup I could use to make chocolate milk.

I took a basic recipe I found online and tweaked it in order to use honey instead of granulated sugar.  My new-and-improved healthy version follows.

And although the original recipe calls for Dutch process cocoa powder to achieve “the beautifully deep color and flavor to which all good chocolate syrups should aspire,” use natural cocoa powder if that’s all you have on hand, or maybe even if you have both on hand.

I made half a batch each with Dutch process and natural cocoa powders and actually preferred the natural process cocoa in this recipe.  Yes, the Dutch process is richer and deeper, but it seemed a little too sophisticated a flavor for plain ol’ chocolate milk.

But either way, you won’t be disappointed.  And neither will your kids.  This recipe has the power to make any child temporarily forget all his math woes. 

Healthy Homemade Chocolate Milk

1/2 cup raw honey

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted

dash salt

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Whisk all ingredients in small bowl until smooth.  The warmer the water, the quicker and easier this is to mix.

Use 1-2 tablespoons syrup per 8 oz. raw milk.  Stir well and start passing out the glasses.  You’ll make some kids very, very happy.

Refrigerate remaining syrup.

Edited to Add:  Just this week we tried the sauce on homemade ice cream, and it was FANTASTIC!