Homemade Peppermint Chocolate Syrup

Hey. It's peppermint and chocolate. I could tell you why I love it but I don't think I need to. It's that season, past putting pumpkin in everything and now we're moving on to eating and drinking ridiculous amounts of peppermint spiked concoctions!

You need:

Bottle to store the syrup
3 tsp pure peppermint extract (1 tbs or 1/2 fluid oz)
3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup powdered baking cocoa
1 tsp salt

In a large saucepan (the syrup will rise when boiling and boil over if you're not careful so make sure you use a pan with plenty of extra room), combine the sugar and water. Heat to steaming and whisk in the cocoa, salt and peppermint extract. Don't add too much peppermint, pure extract is really potent! Boil for 1 to two minutes, stirring constantly. Be careful of boiling over. Boiling hot sugar syrup can cause some nasty burns! Once it has cooled down enough to not melt the bottle (or shatter it if you're using glass), use a funnel to pour the syrup into your container and put it in the fridge.

Make sure you shake it well before using it, in case the peppermint extract rises to the top. That doesn't taste nice!

What do you do with it besides resisting the urge to drink it out of the bottle? You can:

Add it to coffee with some half and half or cream, or milk, or just drink it in plain coffee.
Drizzle it on your cheesecake.
Drizzle it on any cake.
Drizzle it on pancakes.
Use it as a dip for apples or other kind of fruit.
Use it in cocktails.
Use it in many baking recipes.
Stir it in milk, microwave, and you have peppermint hot chocolate - or drink it cold, even.

Really, you can add it to just about anything!