We have vanilla ice cream left over from a party in our freezer right now. Problem is, the pie it was originally served with is long gone, and I find vanilla ice cream quite dull without anything to dress it up :D. Unusually for me, chocolate syrup was what sounded good. However, I don’t actually like store-bought syrup much, and if I’m gonna make it, I may as well make it so Sean can have it! He had ice cream to finish, too, after all. So, I plopped a pan on the stove and came up with this. There is a faint coconut-y taste to the final product, but I find it quite pleasant, actually.

Speaking of coconut milk, I suspect you could use the full-fat version and this would just be a little thicker and creamier, which is no bad thing. I only had light stuff on hand, though, so that’s what I used, and it worked quite well. The fully cooled version is a good chocolate syrup consistency, though you can use it warm, it’ll just be thin. Still tastes great! As a note on the chocolate, I’ve been using Endangered Species brand* because it’s sweetened with beet sugar (yeah, they make that, who knew?) which is safe for us, apparently. It’s also pretty darn good (as chocolate goes, and I’m not much of a chocolate lover normally, so I can’t really serve as a great judge. I can tell you that the texture is MUCH better than most “safe” chocolate I’ve found thus far). So far I’ve found it at Whole Foods and in the Fred Meyer natural foods section. Go ahead and use whatever dark chocolate you like, though.

*If you’re making this as a gluten-free dessert, be aware that I have NOT, repeat, NOT checked to make sure that this brand of chocolate is gluten-free. Use one you already know is safe, if you’re not worried about sugar, otherwise you’re going to need to do some research. Should I be making this when Jennifer is over (and thus I need to ascertain it’s GF status :D), I will definitely update this post and let you know one way or the other.

Chocolate Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 14oz can light coconut milk
• 3 oz bar of natural-sugar dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup agave nectar

Directions:

1. Heat coconut milk and agave nectar together in a small sauce pan until very hot, but not boiling. Turn off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until well melted and combined (this may take a minute).

2. Taste to make sure it’s as sweet as you’d like it. If you want it sweeter, go ahead and add more agave, but do it in small increments, as you don’t want it to get too sweet or to acquire an agave taste.

3. Set aside to cool to room temperature, then pour into a storage container. You can use it at this point, but if you want to have a proper syrup consistency, you have to refrigerate it until chilled through. Store it in the fridge one way or the other. Enjoy on ice cream, to flavor milkshakes (or just milk!), as a dipping sauce or in any other way you’d like!