I have many great memories of my childhood. My brother and I were blessed with the opportunities of enjoying our young lives with a great, great, great aunt and uncle, great grandparents, grandparents and aunts and uncles. One night in particular still makes our dad, my brother and I laugh. Here’s my memory of an experience with the delicious ice cream topping chocolate dope.
It was one of the night’s our dad was spending time with us while our mom was at a meeting. We had finished our homework and Dad decided we should have ice cream covered with chocolate dope. My brother and I were excited because we were getting such a special treat. We still laugh at this night because of what happened when it came time for Dad to make the tasty treat.
First Dad called our great-grandma to get the recipe. We watched eagerly as he made the first batch. We were a little disappointed when this attempt came out too runny so we couldn’t use it. The second batch he burnt. We could tell he was frustrated, but he didn’t give up because he called our great-grandma again. Something went wrong with the third batch since it also stuck to the pan. By this time, I had to hide my smile and hold back a laugh, at this point, I felt bad for my dad. However, I did notice he was smiling in disbelief. I knew he was really trying to make this topping for us. I’m sure our great-grandma was shaking her head when Dad called her the third time to ask her what he was doing wrong. Guess what: his fourth try was a success and it was delicious. It gives the three of us a memory that we can still joke about today.
If you have never tried chocolate dope, here is the recipe.
1/2 cup chocolate powder (unsweetened)
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Combine the designated amount of sugar, water, light corn syrup and unsweetened chocolate into a medium sized pan. Before turning on stove, stir this mixture until chocolate powder is completely covered. Then turn on stove to a medium high temperature and bring the chocolate mixture to a boil, do not stop stirring. Once it is boiling, turn the heat down to low to simmer. Repeat boiling and simmering three to four times. Do not stop stirring. The next to last step is to remove pan from heat and mix in the vanilla extract. Let the chocolate dope cool long enough that it can still be poured over the vanilla ice cream.
