Man oh man – just the sight of this lusciously smooth and silky chocolate gravy smothered on top of a hot buttery biscuit is making me weak in the knees! You’re gonna want to read on and learn how to make this stuff…..just sayin’!
Chocolate gravy is a recipe for love. You are loved if someone makes it for you. And you typically make it for people you love. It’s a truly Southern recipe and an old-fashioned one at that. Both of my grandmothers made it for me and my siblings when we would visit. It was also my mom’s favorite thing to make for us on Valentine’s day with heart-shaped biscuits. At least three of the seven people in our home would request it on their birthday. And sometimes it would make an appearance on Christmas morning.
Because I love you all, my readers, so very much I am sharing it close to Valentine’s Day, in the event you want to make it for someone special. OR in the event that you just want to make it for yourself, in the name of “self-love” and all. You should totally go for it. This silky, smooth, and luscious gravy is MADE for cozy winter mornings at home.
You can serve chocolate gravy over waffles or pancakes or inside of crepes. But the BEST way to serve it, in my opinion, is on top of hot buttery biscuits. If you aren’t good at biscuits or just think it’s too much trouble, let me introduce you to the Cook’s Illustrated way of making biscuits. It involves the genius technique of mixing cooled melted butter into very cold buttermilk until it makes small little clumps. It will look like a curdled mess (like in the picture above), but it saves you the tedious step of cutting butter into the flour. This recipe also spares you the messy task of rolling out biscuit dough and cutting it. All you need to do is scoop the batter into rounded heaps on your baking sheet. 15 minutes or so later, you are rewarded with the butteriest, lightest, flakiest biscuits that taste like you labored for an hour to make them.
And now for the gravy – it is a cinch to make as well! If you’ve ever made pudding on the stove top – be it a “Cook n’ Serve” mix or from scratch, you can make chocolate gravy. It’s essentially a pudding in the way that you cook it, but a very thin one since there is an absence of cornstarch and egg yolks. I highly recommend using milk with a minimum fat content of 2%. Whole milk will yield the silkiest texture and the most flavor.
My family has served chocolate gravy to a slew of house guests over the years – and all have been highly intrigued by it. It may seem strange to some to serve a sweet gravy without any sausage bits in sight, but let’s be adventurous! Try something new. If you are a chocolate lover, chances are, you will LOVE chocolate gravy!
If you decide to give this smooth and silky chocolate gravy a try, I’d love to know what you think! Leave a comment below or upload a picture to Instagram or Twitter and tag @sweetcayenne5.
If you love this recipe, I think you should check out these Cinnamon Drop Biscuits or Easy Apricot Jam!
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, (natural is fine too, I just prefer the taste of Dutch)
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups of 2% or whole milk
- 3 tablespoons butter, sliced into cubes
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold lowfat buttermilk
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly for 5 minutes
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In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, and flour with a whisk. Place over medium-low heat, and add the milk in a steady stream while whisking constantly. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thin pudding, about 5 minutes. The gravy should coat the back of your spoon and leave a slight line when you drag the spoon through the middle of the pot. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Serve hot over biscuits. You may keep warm over very low heat on the stovetop, stirring occasionally and adding a splash of milk if the gravy gets too thick.
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Preheat oven to 450℉. Grease a deep dish pie pan or 8 x 8 square baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
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Add the melted butter to the buttermilk and let stand for 2 minutes. Stir to combine until small clumps form into the mixture.
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Add the clumped buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to lightly fold the ingredients together until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
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Use a 4-ounce dough scoop or a ⅓ cup measuring cup to drop the dough into the prepared pan, placing the dough mounds about ½’’ apart. You should have 9-10 biscuits.
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Bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes until the biscuits are set and the edges are golden brown. Serve hot with chocolate gravy spooned on top.
- Chocolate gravy will keep up to one week. Simply reheat in a saucepan over low heat while stirring constantly.
- Store biscuits in an airtight container in the fridge up to 5 days. Reheat on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F for 7 minutes.
Shop my kitchen tools for making this recipe: