Recipe - Alton Brown's Reloaded Cocoa Syrup

I very much enjoy making my own chocolate syrup. Much like making homemade marshmallows, it elevates it to a whole new level and makes it extra delicious. I also enjoy basically everything Alton Brown does. His show Good Eats has been one of my favorite shows for years. A year or so ago, Mr. Brown started revisiting certain episodes, updating the recipes and techniques, and calling it Good Eats: Reloaded. He's done a few chocolate episodes, and once I got them on my DVR, I refuse to delete them! One of them is The Art of Darkness II: The Reload. In it, he updated his chocolate syrup recipe, and I just had to give it a try!

Here's the ingredients:

3 cups sugar
1½ cup water
2 tbsp corn syrup
1½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp ground black cardamom

The tricky part of that ingredient list is the black cardamom. It takes a bit of preparation, but please do it!

It's SO worth it!

And no, the cardamom you already have is probably not black cardamom.

Black cardamom is different from the typical cardamom spice shaker found in most kitchens. Regular cardamom is actually green cardamom. I had to order the black cardamom online from a spice company, I grabbed it HERE.

The black cardamom comes as whole pods, so you have to grind it yourself. You can either throw them in a spice grinder, if you have one, or use a mortar and pestle, which is what I have. First I cracked open the pods and pulled off the fibrous husks, leaving only the little black spheres inside. They kind of look like peppercorns. Once you've got them ground in your device of choice, sift them to make sure you get all the little fibrous bits out.

Put the water, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and get it boiling. While it's heating, in your food processor, put in the cocoa powder and salt. Give it a few pulses to start getting it blended.

Once the sugar mixture is boiling and not cloudy, and with the lid on your food processor, turn the processor on and slowly pour the hot liquid into the feed tube. Once it's all in, add the vanilla and the black cardamom.

Let it cool for 10 or 20 minutes in the food processor bowl, then use a funnel and pour it into squeeze bottles. I was able to fill 3 bottles. You can keep them in the fridge, or even freeze some and thaw them as needed.

Have you tasted it yet? I was tasting it right out of the processor bowl! Wow, it's SO GOOD! The first taste, I was a little surprised at the flavor the black cardamom brought to it, but then I just couldn't stop tasting it. I still can't! Every time I'm in the kitchen, I have a spoonful.

I'm not sure how to describe it. Try to imagine allspice but with hints of mint and clove. I guess that might be close, although it's a bit more complex than that.

I've been making cold chocolate milk with this, the same way I would make chocolate milk with any other syrup. Wow, what a wonderful, spiced flavor! It's also very aromatic, which is a delight when mixing up a simple glass of chocolate milk. Definitely let's you know you've got something special happening. 

This recipe has me so excited, I want to do all kinds of variations on it. I'd like to try one where the cocoa powder ratio is 50% of the other ingredients. I'd like to try one where I reduce the black cardamom by half, and one where I add a touch of cinnamon, or maybe allspice, ginger, or nutmeg. So much to explore!

If you give it a try, please let me know what you think! And thanks, Alton!