Create the perfect rich, smooth chocolate sauce or syrup at home, ideal for topping, dipping or drizzling

There’s nothing quite like a gorgeous gooey chocolate sauce. Whether it’s drizzled over ice cream, loaded onto pancakes, or served with strawberries, this delightful dip is a real treat.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make your own chocolate sauce at home, here’s all you need to know.

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

Chocolate sauce and chocolate syrup are two delicious, but very distinct, choices. The differences lie in the ingredients and methods used to make the end result.

Chocolate sauce, the star of our Large Chocolate Dipping Adventure, is made using a bar of chocolate, melted and mixed with other ingredients like cream and butter. Making it this way results in a thick, glossy sauce that is perfect for topping desserts or dipping treats like fruit, nuts or marshmallows into for a moment of chocolate bliss.

They may look similar, but chocolate sauce is not to be confused with chocolate ganache, a thick, soft filling for truffles, amongst other treats.

Chocolate syrup is made using cocoa powder and has a thinner, stickier consistency than classic chocolate sauce. This makes it perfect for adding chocolate flavour to your hot drinks – why not turn your usual morning coffee into a delicious mocha? Alternatively, you can drizzle it lightly over your desserts in the style of a continental European café. Chocolate syrup also usually has the benefit of being dairy-free and suitable for vegans.

What type of chocolate works best?

The chocolate you use for your sauce or syrup really depends on your preference. However, for a beautifully rich chocolate sauce with a deep flavour, we always recommend using dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cacao solids.

This is because the dairy ingredients you add later on tempers the intensity and bitterness of the chocolate flavour. The result is a perfectly balanced chocolate flavour.

Another benefit of using chocolate with a high cacao content is that you can make your sauce vegan.

Our 70% Dark Chocolate Batons, for example, are delightfully deep in flavour and contain no dairy ingredients, making them a fantastic plant-based addition to your sauce. Use a vegan milk, cream or butter substitute, depending on your recipe, and you’ll be good to go.

You can, of course, use milk chocolate if you prefer, but do keep in mind that the same flavour dilution will occur so the chocolate flavour of the final sauce will be milder. White chocolate also makes for a deliciously sweet alternative to dark or milk chocolate sauce, and really comes alive as a topping to more savoury or sharp flavours, like nuts or raspberry.

For chocolate syrup, choose the best quality cacao powder you can find to achieve a richly-flavoured and smooth finished product.

How to make your own

Want to try your hand at making chocolate sauce or syrup at home?

Chocolate sauce

To make the perfect indulgent chocolate sauce, you’ll need to start with some top-quality cooking chocolate. Our Batons and Selectors are available in a range of cacao percentages to suit every taste, even including 100% Dark Chocolate Batons. Want to learn more about cacao percentage? Take a look at our article: What does cacao percentage actually mean?

• The first step to making your sauce is melting it. We recommend using a bain-marie to melt the chocolate as it reduces the risk of burning and separating. Simply place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of water simmering on a low heat, ensuring the water isn’t touching the bowl.
• Stir the chocolate constantly until it’s all melted, then remove it from the heat.
• Next, combine cream and sugar in a saucepan – different recipes have different quantities but most will have these ingredients. We like this recipe from BBC Good Food. With this combination, you can also add a dash of your favourite tipple for a celebratory twist. Why not try our Salted Caramel Vodka Liqueur?
• Bring the mixture to a boil then pour it into the bowl with the melted chocolate and whisk continuously until all combined into a thick, glossy sauce.
• If your recipe includes butter, put the combined sauce back on a low heat and melt the butter in gradually.

Chocolate syrup

To whip up a batch of chocolate syrup, you’ll need to mix mixing sugar, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt together in a saucepan. Next, add water and boil it until the sugar dissolves and you are left with a thick syrup.

This recipe from Kitchen Treaty adds vanilla for an extra hint of subtle sweetness.

How to store homemade chocolate sauce

You should store chocolate sauce in the same way as you would dairy products, to account for the butter and cream. Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days, and always check it thoroughly before reheating and using.

You can also freeze chocolate sauce for up to one month. To bring back your chocolate sauce’s texture, put the leftovers into a saucepan and gently heat it through.

Chocolate syrup should also be kept in the fridge, but won’t spoil as quickly as chocolate sauce because it doesn’t contain dairy. Just apply the same principles of checking the product before consuming it.

It starts with Hotel Chocolat

The key to delicious chocolate sauce is quality chocolate. At Hotel Chocolat, we make our chocolate with more cacao and less sugar for that signature intense chocolate flavour, while our three-step tasting process makes sure every product is nothing less than perfect. Discover our full product range to find your next chocolate obsession.