All you need for easy homemade chocolate syrup is 5 ingredients and 5 minutes. This rich dairy-free chocolate syrup is perfect on ice cream and in milkshakes, and is much better than store bought!
Heat the water and sugar in a 1-quart saucepan set over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to just boiling, then reduce the heat to Low and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the cocoa powder and salt to the simple syrup. Continue to simmer, stirring constantly, for two more minutes. The cocoa powder should be fully dissolved and the chocolate syrup should be smooth and slightly thickened. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan so the cocoa powder doesn't burn while it's simmering.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Strain the chocolate syrup through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl to remove any lumps of undissolved cocoa powder.
Let the syrup cool to room temperature (it will thicken upon standing). Transfer to a clean jar and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
Storage instructions: You can store a jar of tightly sealed chocolate syrup in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.
This recipe makes about 1 cup of chocolate syrup, and can be easily doubled.
Recipe Notes
For a deeper chocolate flavor, replace the cocoa powder with dark chocolate cocoa powder, and add ½ teaspoon of espresso powder.Once chilled, this chocolate syrup will have the consistency of runny honey (similar to store bought chocolate syrup), not thick like a chocolate sauce (aka hot fudge sauce).Use this chocolate syrup as an ice cream topping (or swirled into homemade ice cream), in marble cake recipes, or make a killer chocolate milkshake (aka frappe)!