It’s easy to make this homemade chocolate gravy recipe, and pouring it over homemade flaky buttermilk biscuits, pancakes, or waffles makes for a wonderful treat anytime of year.
Chocolate gravy can be made with ingredients you probably already have on hand. And don’t be fooled by the title, it’s not as sweet as the name implies.
Once you make this recipe and serve it to your family, you’ll be coming back to it time and time again.
Why I Love This Recipe
There were times during my Dad’s childhood when they didn’t have enough money for Christmas gifts. But my grandmother would serve this dish as an exceptional and rare treat. Dad said when you walked down the stairs and saw the chocolate gravy you knew it was going to be a good day. She would have this chocolate gravy recipe with homemade biscuits ready for breakfast on Christmas morning.
I’m sad that I never got my grandma’s exact chocolate gravy recipe, but I did find a recipe in an old 1930s cookbook for thin chocolate pudding. So my friend and I took that recipe and reformulated it into what my dad described.
If you have my book Hand Made, you can find the recipe for Chocolate Gravy on page 196. Or, just scroll down to the recipe card below and you’ll also see an option to print the recipe.
Azure Standard
There are certain pantry staples that I’m never without, many of which make up the ingredients for this chocolate gravy recipe. I’ve been buying my cocoa powder and A2/A2 milk powder (among other things) from Azure Standard for a few years now.
Azure happens to be the sponsor of the video in this post. They have the best prices I can find on so many organic bulk items, and I know I’ll be getting great quality.
Right now, Azure has a promotion going for first-time customers. If you purchase a minimum of $50, you can use my code “Pioneering10” and receive 10% off your entire Azure Standard order.
Can I Make This Recipe Ahead of Time?
You can make chocolate gravy ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator until ready to use (see reheating instructions below). Chocolate gravy will only last two or three days in the refrigerator, and honestly, it’s really the best when eaten fresh.
But if you’re looking to shave a few minutes off your breakfast prep, you can make it ahead.
How to Store Chocolate Gravy
Chocolate gravy can be stored in the refrigerator for two or three days. As I said, it really does taste best when eaten fresh. But making a large batch ahead of time is an option.
How to Reheat Chocolate Gravy
Reheat chocolate gravy in a pot on the stove over medium-low heat. Continually stir and whisk (once it’s thin enough) to keep from scorching the gravy.
You may need to thin it with some additional milk, as the gravy tends to thicken when cooled.
Tools Needed
- Whisk – A whisk is a must for making this gravy lump-free and super smooth (the way all good gravy should be!).
- Measuring Cups & Spoons – Though you could probably eyeball this recipe, it’s really best when you use exact measurements.
- Sauce Pot – A medium size pot works well. If you’re doubling or tripling the batch, you’ll want a larger pot.
- Kettle – I like to use a kettle so my water is hot and ready to go when I need it, but a pot on the stove works for boiling water as well.
Ingredients Needed
There are just a few simple ingredients you will need. Most of us already have these items in our cupboards, but if not, Azure Standard is a great place to get these high-quality ingredients.
- Boiling Water – You need to work fast when making this recipe, so make sure your water is boiling before you begin.
- Butter – Butter makes this chocolate gravy have a smooth, rich, velvety texture (and keeps it from being too sweet). I use Azure Standard European Butter.
- Sugar – I prefer Azure Standard Organic Cane Sugar.
- Salt – Fine salt can be used. Pro Tip: Cut the salt in half if your butter is salted.
- Cocoa Powder – I took some from my 5-pound bag of cocoa from Azure Standard.
- Milk – You can use raw milk, regular milk or even A2/A2 Whole Milk Powder from Azure Standard.
- Vanilla – Don’t skip the vanilla! It adds such great flavor. Here is my homemade vanilla extract recipe.
- Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits – You can use my recipe here for flaky buttermilk biscuits. Or check out these buckwheat pancakes from the 1920s, or my DIY pancake mix to have on hand for quick and easy breakfasts.
How To Make Chocolate Gravy
Now onto the fun part, how to make your yummy chocolate gravy. The steps are straightforward, and the key is to keep stirring so as not to scorch or burn anything in your saucepan.
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Whisk in the flour and continue whisking until it browns just a little.
3. Add sugar and salt. Stir it quickly so it doesn’t burn or scorch.
4. Add cocoa powder and stir.
5. Add the boiling water and whisk continually until smooth.
6. Add the milk and whisk again.
7. Let the sauce get hot, but don’t let it boil (unlike pudding). Keep whisking until it just starts to thicken. When you feel it getting thicker, or see just a few bubbles, remove it from the heat.
8. Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
9. Let it cool just a bit (sauce will continue to thicken as it cools).
10. Pour the chocolate gravy over the top of the biscuit, pancakes, waffles, or eat by the spoonful. Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo and tag me on social media @melissaknorris. I’d LOVE to see your chocolate gravy! Then be sure to rate this recipe by clicking the stars in the recipe card below!
Chocolate Gravy
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Whisk in the flour and continue whisking until it browns just a little.
- Add sugar and salt. Stir it quickly so it doesn't burn or scorch.
- Add cocoa powder and stir.
- Add the boiling water and whisk continually until smooth.
- Add the milk and whisk again.
- Let the sauce get hot, but don't let it boil (unlike pudding). Keep whisking until it just starts to thicken. When you feel it getting thicker, or see just a few bubbles, remove it from the heat.
- Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
- Let it cool just a bit (sauce will continue to thicken as it cools).
- Pour the chocolate gravy over the top of the biscuit, pancakes, waffles, or eat by the spoonful. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use my recipe here for flaky buttermilk biscuits. Or check out these buckwheat pancakes from the 1920s, or my DIY pancake mix to have on hand for quick and easy breakfasts.
- Chocolate gravy can be stored in the refrigerator for two or three days. As I said, it really does taste best when eaten fresh. But making a large batch ahead of time is an option.
- Reheat chocolate gravy in a pot on the stove over medium-low heat. Continually stir and whisk (once it’s thin enough) to keep from scortching the gravy. You may need to thin it with some additional milk, as the gravy tends to thicken when cooled.
Made this for my husband who grew up eating chocolate gravy and he loved it! By some miracle I didn’t have any cocoa powder left this morning but a half bar of 82% dark chocolate was a great substitute. Kept all other ingredients the same but forgot the vanilla. Still came out absolutely wonderful. My mother in law even said it was delicious!
I’m 67 y/o and I grew up eating chocolate gravy. My grandma made, my mom made it, I made it and I showed my BIL how to make it. We grew up poor( we didn’t know it bc we ate good Ole southern country cooking). I was taught a different way to make it. I’ve always put some sugar in a pan and add the cocoa, mix that together. And depending on the color of the cocoa and sugar mixed together then I add flour to it and mix well. I put 3-4cups of milk in a bowl and heat it up. Then pour maybe half a cup of hot milk into the dry ingredients,mix well(it’s almost a paste) over a medium low heat. Then gradually add the rest of the milk ,stirring often. Remove from heat once it starts to thicken, add a stick of butter and a little vanilla flavoring and whisk this until the butter has melted. My daughters, when they were young, couldn’t believe everyone didn’t know what chocolate gravy was.
Hi Melissa
This looks so good
But what would you use as alternative for butter and cows milk? I just can not live with the idea that calves are being separated from their mums to satisfy our human taste buds
It’s a horrible practice
Thank you
Murielle
This comes down to where you buy your dairy from. Calf sharing is common for small dairies and what many homesteaders do. My grandmother and I have only made it with dairy, if you don’t use those items you’ll have to test other alternatives.
I had to laugh at the first comment because, for the first 30 years of my life, I, too, thought it was a family recipe that no one else seemed to have ever heard of. My Momma told us that Grandma had to make it for one of her younger brothers every morning, or he wouldn’t eat. Yes, spoiled…lol. My immediate and extended family have made chocolate gravy and biscuits for years as a treat. Especially any time family came in from out of town. Sometimes it’s for breakfast, and sometimes it’s for dinner. My immediate family always makes chocolate gravy and sausage gravy with biscuits. Savory and sweet, yum! There is also always the debate about splitting your biscuits and putting gravy on them or tearing them into bite-size pieces and smothering them with gravy. Like many of the others, our gravy-making process is different from yours. My Grandma never used milk, just cocoa powder, sugar, water, salt, butter, vanilla, and a little cornstarch or flour to thicken it. It’s a richer, darker chocolate gravy. Some of my nieces started making it with milk to have more of a milk chocolate gravy, which my Momma thought was akin to blasphemy! It’s delicious both ways. We have been seeing it more and more online, in magazines, and on YouTube for the last 10-15 years. It is definitely a Southern treat, and I heard from many more people whose families also made it as the word started to spread. But I still run into folks that have either never heard of it, or heard of it but never tried it. And I just feel so sad for them.
Wow! This brings me back to my own childhood ❤️ ? I didn’t realize any other soul outside of my family had ever even heard of chocolate gravy! My husband thought it was the strangest thing when he had this for the first time at breakfast at my parent’s house shortly after we were married. This is something my grandma and my mom would make for my dad (and, of course, us kids) because it’s something my grandparents from the south made for him when he was growing up. Sadly both my grandparents passed away within the last year, but this brings back such sweet memories for me. I will have to make it for my own kids just so I can share the sweet memories!
What a lovely story! This recipe reminds me of one of my husband’s favorite treats growing up- Chocolate Dumplings. My MIL would use a cast iron skillet, make chocolate gravy, then plop chocolate dumplings on top to cook in the sauce. Delicious! She was raised on a farm. How I wish she were still here to share her wisdom!
My mother used to make chocolate gravy and biscuits for us as a treat when we were growing up. I learned to make it (boys learned ‘girl stuff’ and girls learned ‘boy stuff’ in my family all the way back in the late fifties), but her recipe is quite a bit different. I am going to try your recipe as soon as I can, along with my mother’s recipe and see which one I like the best. If I like hers better I will post it.
Thank you for everything you do.
Jerry D Young
Melissa,
I was very touched by your story about your dad’s Christmases with nothing. How spoiled so many are, especially this time of year. I saw a post on Facebook recently: The first Christmas was very simple. It’s OK if yours is, too.
My MeMa used to make chocolate gravy for me most weekends. I always made it for my kids. It was a bit did than this recipe but I find it easier to incorporate the cocoa this way. However, it has way too much cocoa to be balanced. It was too chalky and not sweet enough for me. I think if you used 1/3 cup of cocoa powder it would be a bit better and maybe a tad more sugar. I also used 2 tablespoons of flour to thicken as I like mine not runny. Will try again next time with less cocoa and see.
I’ve made this since my kids were small. My grandmother taught me to make it, and I’ve since found a recipe in a church cookbook. My ingredients are much the same, no water, but process is slightly different. I don’t brown my flour, and add butter with vanilla after gravy is cooked. I put a small amount of milk into my blender, put all the dry ingredients in, blend until smooth, then add with the rest of the milk in a pan. I never have lumpy gravy this way, nor does it have the taste of “raw” flour.
Am I mad if something? What quantity of flour goes into the chocolate gravy?
Oops, it just got added, 1 Tablespoon.
Chocolate gravy is a timeless treat. Thank you for sharing. The ingredients list does not call out an amount for flour. I didn’t read the entire pre-amble, so I apologize if I missed its mention there, but as it’s important for the “roux” part of the gravy, I thought I’d ask if it should be assumed that the amount of flour should be equal to the amount of fat or if you have a different recommendation. Thanks again for sharing, I look forward to trying this.
Not the same amount as this is a thin gravy, I just updated it as you’re correct, it missed getting typed in the first time.
Hello – your recipe for chocolate gravy doesn’t have any measurements for vanilla but says on step 8 to add vanilla? Please let me know how much to use.
Thanks
It just got updated and shows, thank you
Oh my Melissa! My grandmother would make this once a month and I can still remember the smell from her kitchen. Thankfully she passed the recipe down to me, which she “inherited” from her grandmother, along with her biscuit recipe. I’m originally from western NC and thought this was just another Southern thing, lol!
Would you consider sharing your Grandmother’s recipe? Thanks!
My Grandmother used 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup flour, dash salt, and 4 cups milk. She would add all of this to a pot, mix it well and cook over medium low heat until it thickened. Then she would add 2 Tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
There isn’t any flour listed in the ingredient list for the recipe. How much, please?
You said whisk in flour. How much flour do I need? (I’ll be using GF)
Thanks!
I don’t know with GF, I’ve not used it to make gravy and doesn’t know that it will thicken the same way, but it has been updated.
Instead of GF flour, do you think arrowroot or tapioca starch would work? And how much?
Reminds me of a chocolate pudding recipe, but minus the eggs. It looks like it would sort of taste like a chocolate pie with a flaky crust. ?
Melissa, thank you for this recipe. How much flour should be added? It isn’t in the ingredient list.
Melissa, I’ve been following you for several years now and always enjoy your posts. My kids are excited at the thought of chocolate gravy, but I’m a bit confused. In your post and on the card you refer to stirring “in the flour.” However in your list of ingredients in the post and on the card there is no mention of flour. Could you please clarify that? Thanks!
How much flour is added?
You forgot to write in how much flour to use. Thanks
The recipe sounds great but how much flour and how much vanilla? You didn’t list either in the ingredient list!
How much flour?