Southern Chocolate Gravy Recipe
Chocolate gravy, aka cocoa gravy, is a Southern delicacy that has been around for generations. It’s a sweet, creamy sauce made from cocoa powder, sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla. The ingredients are combined in a pot and cooked until thickened. The result is a rich, velvety sweet sauce that can be served over homemade biscuits or pancakes.
Chocolate gravy is often served as part of a traditional Southern breakfast or weekend brunch, but it can also be enjoyed as a dessert. (It will remind you a lot of chocolate pudding.) It’s a great way to satisfy one’s sweet tooth at breakfast.
This southern-style chocolate gravy is made with pantry staples and comes together quickly. Let’s look at how to make this easy recipe.
Ingredients
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Make sure that there are no lumps in the dry mixture. Set aside.
Add milk to a heavy saucepan and turn the burner to medium-high heat.
Add the dry ingredients to the milk and whisk to combine.
Stir the gravy continuously until it begins to thicken, about 5-7 minutes.
Remove it from the heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
Spoon this creamy gravy over warm biscuits or over scoops of vanilla ice cream.
Store any leftover gravy in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It may form a “skin” on the top. This is normal and it’s perfectly edible.
What can you serve chocolate gravy with?
Chocolate gravy can be served with a variety of dishes. It is traditionally served over biscuits, but it can also be enjoyed over pancakes, waffles, French toast, oatmeal, ice cream, or even pound cake.
What is the difference between chocolate gravy and chocolate sauce?
Chocolate gravy is a thick, creamy sauce made with cocoa powder, sugar, butter, and milk. It is usually served over biscuits or pancakes. Chocolate sauce is thinner and sweeter than chocolate gravy and is often used as a topping for desserts such as ice cream or cake or to make chocolate milk.
Can I use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder?
Yes. While cacao powder is known to be slightly more bitter than cocoa powder because it is processed at a lower temperature than cocoa powder, it still works in this recipe thanks to sugar.
Recipe Notes
For added flavor, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. If you are a fan of Mexican spicy foods, you can add a dash of cayenne to make it Mexican-style breakfast chocolate gravy.
Homemade Biscuit Recipes
Before you make chocolate gravy, you’ll want to bake a batch of biscuits. Here are some delicious biscuit recipes that go great with gravy:
Southern Chocolate Gravy
Ingredients
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Make sure that there are no lumps in the dry mixture. Set aside.
- Add milk to a heavy saucepan and turn the burner to medium-high heat.
- Add the dry ingredients to the milk and whisk to combine.
- Stir the gravy continuously until it begins to thicken, about 5-7 minutes.
- Remove it from the heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
- Serve warm over biscuits or ice cream.
Nutrition
Be sure to come back and tell us how your chocolate gravy turned out!
Delicious!! I actually used what I had in the cabinet which was hot chocolate mix, it had real cocoa powder and sugar so I used a little less granulated sugar than called for. I also added a little heavy cream for flavor and texture. This was my first attempt at making chocolate gravy but it turned out fabulous!
So glad to hear that your modifications to the recipe still resulted in a delicious chocolate gravy.