This amazingly delicious and easy Chocolate Gravy recipe is great on hot biscuits, pound cake, or even ice cream! The perfect sauce for just about anything!
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What can I say about Chocolate Gravy? I mean… it’s chocolate. And it’s gravy. It’s chocolate gravy. I love it on hot biscuits, but it’s great on pound cake, ice cream, just about anything! You’re going to want to make this ASAP. And you’re going to want to put it on everything.
Not only is it delicious, it’s incredibly easy to make, too! Yeah, it takes a little bit of stirring to keep it from scorching, but that’s a pretty easy task. And the end result is the most delicious, velvety chocolate sauce.
What is chocolate gravy made of?
Let me start with the disclaimer that no recipe is exactly the same. However, most all chocolate gravy recipes feature cocoa powder and a few other simple ingredients, such as butter, flour, sugar, and milk. My recipe also calls for vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to really amp up the flavor. Whisk, whisk, whisk… and enjoy!
How to serve chocolate gravy
In my own bizarre brain, I feel like chocolate gravy is seen as kid food, but I assure you one taste of this stuff and you’ll realize this deliciousness shouldn’t be relegated to only the little folks. It’s a delicious treat the whole family will love for breakfast or dessert! Here are a few of my favorite ways to serve chocolate gravy:
- Over biscuits – This is my favorite way to eat up this delicious sauce. I prefer to pour a very generous serving of chocolate gravy right over the top of biscuits. Grab a fork, and you’ll thank me later! It truly is best over my Easy Buttermilk Biscuits recipe. Try it out!
- On top of pancakes and waffles – In place of your typical maple syrup, give chocolate gravy a try over pancakes and/or waffles! You will never regret it!
- Spread over toast – Kind of like Nutella or jam, you can spread this decadent goodness all over toast. Yummm!
- Poured over ice cream – Think of it as thick, rich chocolate syrup… only it’s so much better than the store-bought chocolate syrup topping!
- As a dip with fresh fruit like strawberries – Who doesn’t love chocolate-covered strawberries? You could even dip apples and slices of pineapple in this delicious sauce! Yum!
- Over top of your favorite pound cake – Grab your favorite pound cake from the store or whip up own Buttermilk Pound Cake. Top it off with this chocolate gravy and enjoy!
Why isn’t my chocolate gravy thickening?
If your chocolate gravy isn’t thickening here are a few things to consider:
- Did you cook it long enough? My recipe specifically says to cook for 5-7 minutes. Make sure you are cooking for the full time and not cutting any corners. It really matters when it comes to the thickness of your chocolate gravy.
- Did you use the exact ingredients and measurements? This is one dish you don’t want to go off-script with. Each ingredient is carefully measured and tested for prime deliciousness. So, just make sure you use the exact amount I detail out in the recipe. This ensures you don’t add too much milk making it runny. It also ensures that you add enough cocoa and flour that will help with thickening.
If you answered “yes” to all these questions and your gravy is still not thick enough, you can try adding a little more flour while stirring until it thickens. Remember, chocolate gravy should be smooth and pourable but not too thin. Be patient, and you’ll get it just right!
Recipe Card
Chocolate Gravy
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, and salt. Pour in the milk and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
- Place the pan over medium heat and cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly, until the gravy just begins to boil and then thickens.
- Once thick, remove from the heat stir in the butter and vanilla. Stir until the butter has melted. Serve over hot biscuits, pound cake, or even over ice cream!
Video
Nutrition
Please note:
If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
It is really good poured over biscuit bread pudding.
Love that idea!
I followed the recipe for chocolate gravy and it turned out good
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Kayle!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! We would beg our mother to make “chocolate puddin’ whenever the family was together. She never had an actual recipe. Just a little of this and that with homemade biscuits and plenty of butter on top. I plan to try your version this weekend.
Hope it brings back tons of happy memories for you!
I know Chocolate Gravy is a popular Southern thing and I am from South California, I love Chocolate Gravy. My grandmother, who was from upstate New York made it, so this is an early memory for me. I like to sweeten my buttermilk biscuit dough with some sugar and pour the brown goodness over my sweet biscuits. It’s also good when hot and poured over chocolate cake, yes even if it’s already frosted.
Sounds perfect to me!
I love this easy recipe, side note: you can use sepf rising flour if you dont have regular! My grandma use to feed this all to her grandkids and then she’d tell us all to go run and play in the backyard before our parents got here!! 😂 she passed away before she taught me her w to make it so your recipe is just like her’s and now I follow the tradition of feeding my kids chocolate gravy sometimes!
Love this so, so much!!
Recipe is delicious 😋 added some bacon 🥓 grease for flavor. Makes me miss my grandma who used to make me chocolate gravy ❤️
I’ve not tried the bacon grease! Glad you enjoyed it and it brought back sweet memories!
Love this recipe, I substituted nesquick powder with cocoa powder and it really gave a sweet yummy flavor.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing your chocolate gravy recipe!! I’ve used other recipes but none were “just right” until I found yours!! My husband, who usually doesn’t eat chocolate gravy & biscuits just ate 2 servings!!! Your recipe is THE BEST!!
Thank you, Jennifer! I’m so glad y’all enjoyed it!
I’ve been eating chocolate gravy since I was knee-high to a grasshopper! Going on 78 now. Still eat on waffles, usually for supper. I just use cocoa and sugar and just enough milk to stir. May add some butter after almost done. Cook until good boil, maybe 3-4 minutes and enjoy! I never measure; any leftover goes in fridge. Good stuff Maynard!😉
Agreed! So good!
Until recently, I had never even heard of chocolate gravy. I seen a TikTok and I knew I needed it in my life ASAP. I found this recipe and man oh man is this heavenly!!!
So glad you found me and enjoyed the gravy!
I added about 1 tsp. of instant espresso granules for a more intense chocolate flavor.
Perfect!
OK Junie! I may have to try this!
It’s a wonderful recipe, regardless!
Thank you!
I just made it,So delicious
Thank you so much!
The best I’ve tried! It was delish!!
Thank you so much Sherae!
Hello, I made my grandma’s most loved by all, Chocolate gravy recipe I didn’t use her recipe because I misplaced it & my grandma has since passed away I just picked a similar recipe & made it recently but I didn’t have any vanilla at 1st. the gravy was a perfect consistency taste & turned out perfect just like I remember as a child when my grandma made it with her home made yummy biscuits but my gravy went from perfect 1 min to a complete gravy disaster the next my gravy started changing it’s consistency to a thick bumpy lumpy mess!!!??? my gravy was exactly like the kind of chocolate used when you dip strawberry’s or fruit in it where at 1st the chocolate works perfectly smooth to a perfect consistency only to thicken & harden with a lumpy , bumpy grainy mess that exactly how my gravy turned out to be?? would or could you please tell me what I obviously did or want wrong?? Thank you so much if you could anyone please reply back to me & maybe have some pointers on where I went wrong do I can make my gravy just like my grandma’s🙏🏻
Hoping to hear from you🙏🏻🙏🏻
Jana Guagliardo
Hi Jana! Let see what we can figure out… To start, did you use my recipe or another one?
Yummmmmm!!!!
basically chocolate pudding when u did not have a lot of money for eggs and sugar. A dish ….Norwegian or Swedish called root be groot (spelling phonetically) makes a similar dish a friends parents used to make and it was served as the only dish for dinner no chocolate but extra sugar on top and plum jelly on side
How I got to chocolate gravy on a stormy Sunday night during a tornado warning I haven’t the slightest but it started I think with mayhaw jelly! Oh, mercy!
Old recipes and tips for pets are the best reasons for the internet! Ha! (And YouTube of course…)
This nails it. The chocolate gravy I grew up with. Thank you for sharing the Souhern Love!
Ha! So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Hope y’all didn’t have any damage!
This is fantastic! My son and I loved it! We’re not originally from the south, but we have been living in the south over 10yrs now. I never heard of this until just a few months ago. We had a few rolls of the refrigerator biscuits left over from the holidays and gave it a try. Wow! It’s so easy and so darn good! Thanks for posting.
Wonderful! So glad y’all enjoyed it!
Hello,
I can’t believe we didn’t grow up with “chocolate gravy” – Can you use this recipe to pour over icecream. I am not sure of the biscuit thing. I would be all in for icrecream though.
Hi Kimberly! I certainly think you could. This has the flavor and consistency of a thick, rich chocolate pudding, if that helps. I love it on biscuits, pancakes, and pound cake!
You forgot the main part. You forgot to tell people how to make choclate gravy! Are you saying it doesn’t really matter how much sugar, flour, milk and cocoa you put in it? If I went by your directions I’d just have a bug mess in my kitchen
Ummm… huh? The full recipe is at the bottom of the post.
Found this recipe and wanted to try. I left out the chocolate (hubby is allergic) and added some maple and rum extract. I used it to top your skillet cake and it was a major hit with the family. Thanks for sharing.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Erica!
Tastes as good as I remember my Mama’s tasting. My 5 yr grandson helped me make this and biscuits this morning for breakfast. He loved it and I loved that we made a memory ❤️
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Now that is the ULTIMATE compliment for me! Thanks so, so much, Fredda! So glad y’all enjoyed it!
My husband is from Mississippi, born and bred on chocolate gravy and biscuits. This is the only variation I have tried that got my husband to utter, between mouthfuls, “Please don’t forget how you made this, it’s gooooooood!”
Thank you for making my Superman happy.
Ha! I’m so glad it met with his seal of approval!!
Amazing recipe thank you so much! Had to substitute cocoa powder with dark chocolate and all purpose flour with tapioca flour. Best sauce ever served over pancakes!
Sweet! So glad it turned out great for you, Ben!!
Could I possibly use hot cocoa mix instead of regular cocoa powder?
I think, in this case, cocoa powder is just going to be best.
Stacey!!! Chocolate Gravy!!!!! Naughty, naughty!!!
🙂
I love chocolate gravy and have developed an easy recipe for just about anyone that likes a darker chocolate taste….. the base is 1/4 C sugar to 1 heaping T of cocoa powder. This is easy to make a whole batch for family or just a bit for a solo breakfast, just keep adding the same amount of sugar to the same amount of cocoa. Then I add the milk by sight and cook and stir until reduced. We leave it on the stove for most of the day, swiping a finger full as we go by……think I’ll make some up for dinner…..yum!!
Sounds great! Thanks for sharing!!
Another hit at my house, Stacy! I was born & raised in a small town in Oklahoma & never had (or even heard of) chocolate gravy until I met my future hubby (from Texas). His mother made awesome chocolate gravy.
Years later, my teenaged grandson asked me to fix some so, of course, I came to your site. 🙂 I doubled the recipe & my son & I ate some & John polished it off. (He just told me he feels kinda sick! LOL) Thank you, Stacey. You never fail me!
Thank you so much for the confidence!
My grandmother and my mother both made chocolate gravy, but always made it in an iron skillet. I haven’t had it in years. I really need to make it. Brings back memories
🙂
When I was growing up we had chocolate gravy over plain vanilla muffins (my mom didn’t like biscuits…shameless! Either way it great stuff!
Ha! I’ll take Chocolate Gravy any way I can get it!
How is it stored and how long will it last, if you don’t eat it all right away?
You can store it covered in the fridge for a few days.
The first time I heard a co-worker mention chocolate gravy, I thought my ears had not heard her right. I asked her to repeat and when she graciously did so, I thought she was pulling my leg. LOL She called her mother to get her version of the recipe, made it and biscuits for me to try and I was impressed!! Now I will have to try your recipe, Stacey. I’m sure I will enjoy it. I’ll let you know.
Please do! I sure hope you enjoy it!
When I was a very young woman,I have an aunt, her name was.Annuschka She has taught me make chocolate gravy and my young husband liked it very much. Annuschka has said that when the gravy had completed must put it in little porceain or glass bowls and whipped cream on them top. When I have some visitors, my family or friends, they all knows – now they eat my fantastic chocolate gravy. Today I make it for my grandchildren and think with thankfulness to my aunt, Annushka.
Love that!! Once it cools, it is very pudding like, so I love that idea!
Chocolate gravy is a specialty in my husband’s family—new to me when I married into the family, but I very quickly became a convert! As delicious as it is warm poured over biscuits, it is equally delicious chilled and eaten the next day. Make a double batch and chill small cups of it to enjoy as a decadent pudding-like dessert the next day! Yummmm!
What a great idea!!
Are there tricks to making a double batch, or do you just straight double everything?
Just double it all. 🙂
It’s so funny that you posted this. I was just discussing chocolate gravy with my mother on Sunday. My granny used to make us grandkids stir and stir and stir for her and I can remember my arm getting tired. My mother has tried making chocolate gravy but it just doesn’t to taste the same as I remember it. Maybe it was the pot Granny used to cook it in. Maybe it was because she just threw in ingredients and didn’t measure so we don’t know her ‘recipe’. She made the best buttermilk biscuits so I sometimes wonder if that was part of it too. I definitely need to try your recipe and see if it’s close to what I remember.
Ha! You know I’m conviced that even if we had the exact recipe, it still wouldn’t taste the same. I think we can “taste” memories in recipes like this one. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this one! 🙂
My mom made chocolate gravy also and us kids loved it to death…she also made her home made buttermilk biscuits..as far as the chocolate went, she never used salt, or vanilla extract,her ingredients were hersheys chocolate, flour sugar, water and milk and we put butter in our plates or bowls then the chocolate was poured over the butter, the biscuits were the best part to go along with the chocolate..sometimes we used toast or just bread, we used to break up pieces of bread and poured the chocolate over the bread and added the butter…it was yummmmm yummmmm… now im vegetarian im wondering if i could wheat flour and my stomach cant handle anything with folic acid in it so i also wondering if i used silk milk for the liquid mixture part of the ingredients..can u help me out on this before i make it how it would be as far as taste is concerned….THANKS..
I think you could definitely make that work!
The original recipe that I work off of doesn’t use milk at all 🙂 It uses water instead less cocoa and more sugar to balance tad more butter and vanilla. Just play with it!