Passport & Plate - Aunt Nina's Chocolate Gravy
USA | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 2 photos
Ingredients
½ cup Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sugar
2 cups milk
2 generous tbsp. softened butter
2 tsp. vanilla
How to prepare this recipeStir dry ingredients together.
Add milk and mix well.
Heat in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns to a gravy consistency, 5-10 minutes.
You can add a little more flour if necessary to achieve desired thickness.
Stir in vanilla and butter.
(Be careful not to burn the mixture! Stir, stir, stir so it doesn’t stick to the pan. This is very tricky, but I found that adding a little more sugar can take away a burnt taste.)
Serve warm over biscuits or rice.
The story behind this recipeChasing lightning bugs helped make my first visit to Arkansas magical. My great aunt’s special breakfast made it fantastical. I was 8 and my sister was 6. We had only recently met Aunt Nina, one of my grandmother’s five sisters. Every summer Granny traveled to her home state, leaving her granddaughters in Northern California missing her terribly. That year my parents loaded up our Toyota Celica, complete with luggage pod strapped on top, for a cross-country road trip where we would meet relatives along the way. Granny had already flown to Arkansas and we were going to bring her home.
My sister and I could scarcely believe our ears when Aunt Nina asked Granny, with a gleam in her eye and mischievous smile, if they should make chocolate gravy. Those words didn’t go together. We didn’t grow up spreading Nutella on toast. The suggestion that we could cover our food in chocolate was unfathomable.
Chocolate gravy is a Southern treat served over biscuits or rice. It’s heartier than chocolate sauce little girls pour on ice cream sundaes and thicker than maple syrup they drench their pancakes in. But like syrup, we sopped up every bit of the gravy with our biscuits and eggs. It wasn’t too sweet like melted chocolate. Still, it was definitely a once-a-year occasion food, too rich to have on a regular basis. Most adults outside the Southern states would probably scrunch their noses at the suggestion of chocolate gravy. That’s so unhealthy! But two little girls who had not hit double digits were the perfect age to appreciate it.
The adults sitting around the kitchen table 30 years ago – my parents, Granny, Aunt Nina and Uncle Vernon – were tickled with our inquiries. “Can we make this at home? Why haven’t we had this before?” What I remember is everyone savoring the meal, engrossed in the warm plates of goodness in front of them. As an adult I’m not a fan of gravy on turkey or mashed potatoes. After tasting my Aunt Nina’s chocolate gravy, no other variation compares.
