Chocolate Gravy Recipe
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Using pantry staples, this Southern-style chocolate gravy recipe is so quick and easy to make and tastes absolutely incredible served with homemade biscuits.
Does a chocolate gravy recipe sound a bit odd to you? Well, for me, a professed chocolate lover, nothing with chocolate is ever ruled out but I was intrigued as to what this recipe would taste like when I whipped it up. For me, this is perfect: not too rich, but has that silky smooth chocolate flavor I adore.
Chocolate gravy’s roots are in the South for sure. Anywhere from Louisiana to Tennessee has claimed its origin even dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Anything that lasted that long just has to be good!
A Little History About the Chocolate Gravy Recipe
In days of old, with flour in abundance and other resources scarce, biscuits made a great breakfast and filling snack any time of day. Sweets were not a regular occurrence, so waking up in the morning to find fresh buttermilk biscuits and a boat of chocolate gravy was a wondrous treat. It was poured over the buttered flaky biscuits, then the tender bread soaks it up and as I found out when I tried it – you are then on your way to heaven no matter what the day has in store for you.
Here is the old-fashioned chocolate gravy recipe I used. Don’t try this unless you want the flavor to linger in your mind for the rest of your life. It was purely divine. Also, scroll down to find some suggestions about what else you can do with this special biscuit and chocolate gravy recipe.
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar
- Flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Milk
- Butter
Put the (the , , and ) in a heavy saucepan.
Add the milk.
Whisk together well.
It will be a little lumpy but those will cook up so don’t worry. Just keep stirring. We want to stir this constantly, over medium heat. The goal is to bring it slowly to a boil.
We need to be careful though because if you stop stirring it the milk will scorch rather easily.
When it comes to a low boil, turn the heat off and continue stirring for a minute or two. This will thicken up rather suddenly to the consistency of a thin gravy.
Add butter and stir well.
Pour your chocolate gravy into a gravy boat and then get ready to pour it over your warm biscuits.
If you’re looking for a homemade biscuit recipe, here it is!
I hope you can smell this. If not, get into your kitchen and make up some quick!
Chocolate gravy is super easy, but such an indulgent taste! Scroll down to see what you can do with this delightful dessert.
Storage
Store chocolate gravy leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Just reheat in the microwave before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Use whichever cocoa powder you prefer in this gravy recipe. I like the natural unsweetened cocoa powder but if you like Dutch-process cocoa powder, go for it!
- For more flavor, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt at the end, just before serving.
Recipe FAQs
What else can you do with this chocolate gravy recipe?
Well, I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of this but add some custard filling in the biscuit or some vanilla ice cream for a chocolate gravy eclair or ice cream sandwich. YUM! You could also serve it over buttermilk pancakes, vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries, or a slice of pound cake. The possibilities are endless with this beautiful creamy chocolate sauce aka gravy.
You may also like these other delicious dessert recipes:
Grandma Pear’s Flaky Chocolate Icing
Chocolate Cobbler Recipe Food Allergy Options
Chocolate Depression Cake No Milk or Eggs!
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 T flour
- 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Combine everything except the butter in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.1 cup white sugar, 2 T flour, 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/4 cups milk
- Once boiling, cut the heat down and stir for a minute more (it will get pretty thick rather suddenly). Take off the heat and stir in the butter.1 tablespoon butter
- To serve, pour over homemade biscuits. I tear my hot biscuit up in a bowl first and then pour it over.
Nutrition
My mother used to make chocolate syrup and I would pour it over my gravy and biscuits. We are from southeastern Kentucky.
My grandparents lived in Greenhill, near Florence. Like Tissie’s family, we called it chocolate ‘n biscuits too. We sopped, no spoon LOL
I never learned this from her, as she never measured. I was able to replicate hers after a few trial and error sessions, but her (and now mine) ratio of cocoa to milk is quite a bit different than yours (ours is darker, with minimal milk). I’ve further tweaked it by adding 1/2 tsp instant coffee, per hubby’s mother’s chocolate pie secret. Oh and about 1/8 tsp of salt of course, so it won’t “taste empty”, haha my Yankee mother taught me that, and to always add a pinch of sugar to savories so they won’t taste empty either ROFL
I have grown up in South Central Oklahoma and I have eaten Chocolate “Gravy” all my life and I still make it for my family and grand children and they all love it. The reason I put “Gravy” in marks is that your recipe seems to be a thin pudding and made completely backward to mine. As in white pan gravy I start with a “Roux” made with flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder mixed together in a bowl and poured into a stick of butter melted in a cast iron skillet. This mixture is cooked together for several minutes to cook the rawness out of the flour then the milk is whisked into it and stirred until the mixture is bubbling and tickened. Also I don’t use quite as much sugar. The salt really brings out the chocolate flavor and it isn’t flat tasting. A lot of folks say they never tasted chocolate gravy, but the ones who grew up on it love it no matter how old they are.
I’ve been called worse things than “backward”, but my mamas recipe for “gravy” sure is good! Glad you have a good one too!;)
Donna, yours is similar to the one I learned about 12 years ago. (Even though I have an AL mom, an NC dad,and grew up in Texas, I had never heard of this before a friend showed it to me.) The only difference was instead of the cocoa and sugar, he said his mama used chocolate drink mix. (it dissolves quicker). It does make me happy to know that I can use staples from my kitchen, though. I always wondered if they would work. Oh, and I make the roux by starting with melting the butter, cooking the flour, then milk, then drink mix. Either way, this is some good stuff, folks!
we grew up eating chocolate gravy and i made it for my kids when they were growing up.mine calls for a little more flour and i add a little vanilla at the end. if you are lucky enough to have any left over( which was rare in my house lol) put it in the fridge and later you can eat it like pudding. you can add an egg to it at the end( mix an egg in a bowl and add gravy a little at a time so as not to coo the egg ,then add to gravy) and it makes a wonderful chocolate pie
I’m a Southern gal that had never heard of chocolate gravy until I married my husband (an Alabama fella.) He was telling me about his mother fixing this for breakfast and I I found a recipe in one of my old church cookbooks and made it for him. He was happier than a pig in slop. He was diagnosed with diabetes and I haven’t made it since – now I’ll be able to try your recipe with Splenda and he won’t have to miss out on it anymore.
Thank you for a recipe that is just like my grandmother made on Christmas mornings when I was young and she was still cooking. This is more than a recipe, it’s a memory. I’m making it for breakfast in the morning.
As always, love your recipes.
I think ours was a thicker sauce. i’ll have to check the flour in it but it sticks to the biscuits and is rather thick. Couldn’t pour out of a little teapot but scoup by large spoon or scoups and it is about as thick as gravy but is all pure chocolae and has that butter added at the last.