Gift idea # 7 Chocolate Syrups and Caramel Sauce.

Yum, yum, that's what I have to say about these toppings. The caramel sauce is taken from a ginger cake recipe, you are supposed to pour it over the cake when it is warm. I found the sauce to be great by itself so I always made more than the recipe called for. People would lick their plates when I served it. It is simple to make and great to use on ice cream, or cake or on a spoon. This recipe yields a little less that 2 cups, feel free to double it.

Caramel Sauce
.    1 cup brown sugar, packed
.    1/2  butter
.    1/2 cup whipping cream
.    1/2  teaspoon sea salt

In a small saucepan, stir brown sugar, butter, whipping cream and salt over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a boil. 

Reduce heat to medium-low and stir until smooth, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
I like to use glass jars so that the sauce is easy to heat. It does need to be kept in the fridge, but it usually doesn't last very long !!


Chocolate Syrups !!

Here are two recipes for chocolate syrup. These syrups are very fun to serve on ice cream, to dress up a cake or in milk , coffee drinks or hot cocoa.

Chocolate Syrup # 1

This first one is from Alton Brown. It makes about 4 cups and is slightly more liquid than the second one. He calls for corn syrup but I am finding that agave works just as well.

Ingredients
    •    1 1/2 cups water
    •    3 cups sugar
    •    1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
    •    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    •    1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
    •    2 tablespoons light corn syrup( or agave)
Directions
In a medium size pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn or agave syrup.

Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened.
Strain and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Syrup # 2
This recipe is from David Lebovitz who writes about food and especially sweet from Paris.
I made this one first, it tends to be slightly thicker but when I tried Alton's I liked things about it too. This recipe makes about 2 cups.


Ingredients.
1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup, agave nectar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, sugar, corn syrup or agave, and cocoa powder.

 

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it’s just begun to simmer and boil, remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted.

 

Strain and cool to room temperature.

Pour into squeeze bottles. I used the agave and corn syrup bottles I had been saving. I used calendar images and plastic contact paper to cover them. You could also use glass bottles or jars.