I recently found a Ball canning chocolate sauce recipe for the Holidays, only to find that Ball no longer recommends canning chocolate sauce for safety reasons! Bummer!

Instead, I’ve taken their chocolate sauce recipe, and removed the canning instructions. It’s quick enough to make in a pinch and stores reasonably well in the fridge, so I don’t worry about canning it anymore!

I just always make sure to have the ingredients on hand.

Homesteading is often about making or creating what you could otherwise buy in a store.

Why do we put in this extra effort when it would be much simpler to drive to the store and pick up a bottle?

Because there’s a pride in accomplishment, because we can control exactly what goes into our food, because by making it ourselves, we’re proclaiming to the world, I CAN!

Everyone has their own reasons for homesteading.

Personally, I feel like the food-world, the large corporations, the faceless giants behind our consumer economy do not have our best interests at heart. In fact, I feel like they couldn’t care less about us.

I feel like there’s a monetary war between “them” and “us”, and we vote for what we want in our lives with every penny we spend.

If I spend $3 to make something from scratch, at home, then I’m voting for my family, my own ability, my homestead.

If I spend $3 on a quick fix, fast food, pre-made meals, then I’m voting for a cheap, fast, careless world.

But enough of my soapbox. Something about the cold dark Winter mornings makes me tough and combative. 

But now on to something much sweeter! (Cue “and now for something completely different” from Monty Python).

Chocolate syrup. A staple in my household. We don’t do a lot of sweets, but I’m not sure we could do without chocolate syrup. Between milkshakes, chocolate milk, icecream, heck, even drizzled over my Grandma’s banana nut bread.

Check out the ingredients of Hersey’s Chocolate Syrup to my homemade chocolate syrup:

Hersey’s Chocolate Syrup vs. Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Hersey’s	Homemade
High Fructose Corn Syrup	Sugar
Corn Syrup	Water
Water	Cocoa
Cocoa	Light Corn Syrup
Sugar	Vanilla Extract
Potassium Sorbate	Salt
Salt
Mono- and Diglycerides
Xanthan Gum
Polysorbate 60
Vanillin, Artificial Flavor

I don’t know about you, but the one on the right looks better to me.

canning chocolate sauce Instructions

UPDATE: While I have seen this recipe or similar recipes all over the internet, the National Center for Home Food Preservation does NOT recommend canning chocolate sauce.

It is a low acid food, which should be pressure canned.

Unfortunately, however, there are no tested recipes for pressure canning chocolate sauce.

I have had no issues canning this sauce, but to prevent others from possible Botulism poisoning, I am removing the canning instructions.

My recommendation is to store the sauce in the fridge and use it within a month. I apologize for any confusion!

There is a recipe in the Ball canning guide that makes a chocolate raspberry sauce that you’re able to water bath can. The raspberries increase the acidity enough to make it safe.

This recipe makes 4 half-pint jars of syrup.