Recipe: Granny’s Chocolate Gravy
A Tennessee delight straight from my childhood.
Sorry, granny, about the canned biscuits. Also sorry that chocolate gravy just isn’t very photogenic. (Credit: Toby Sells)
A mention of chocolate gravy is met with two facial expressions — puzzled or pumped.
“Is it just…melted chocolate poured on biscuits?” a puzzled person might ask. “Did your granny put bacon in it, or no?” a pumped person might ask.
My Granny never did. She was a chocolate gravy purist. And hers was the best. When she passed away, my mom collected a ton of Granny’s favorite and best recipes in a cookbook. Her peanut butter bon bons were there. So was her taco dip. But I was thrilled to see her chocolate gravy recipe, a copy of her original recipe written in her unique handwriting that claimed Granny’s recipe was actually from her mother, Bertie.
It was a weekend treat, and not every weekend, mind you. But when Granny got out that box of Hershey’s cocoa powder, you knew a slice of Tennessee heaven awaited.
Chocolate gravy is sweet but it’s not candy sweet. There’s a warm, wholesome richness to it that plays perfectly with the savor of a buttery homemade skillet biscuit (or cat head biscuit for the initiated). We used canned biscuits here. Sorry, Granny.
While it is most definitely prevalent in Tennessee, its origins are murky. Did the Melungeons preserve the dish through trade with Spanish Louisiana (as the “Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America” theorizes)? Did it develop as Hershey’s cocoa powder became popular in the U.S.? Does it come from Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, or even Illinois or Indiana?
I’ll never know. But I do know that you should try chocolate gravy this weekend.
Ingredients
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• dash of salt
• 2 cups sweet (or whole) milk
Directions
• Combine first four ingredients in a large skillet or sauté pan
• Whisk in milk
• Cook over medium heat stirring often until thickened
• Remove from heat
• Serve immediately over warm biscuits
