Chocolate Raspberry Sauce

It's raspberry season in our backyard.  I've spent a fair bit of time preserving the raspberries as they came in, though I think the quantity was cut in half as Oldest Kid picks one for the bucket, one for her, one for the bucket, one for her.  She just loves anything that ends in ~berry.

Yesterday afternoon, I made a family favorite, Chocolate Raspberry Sauce.  Ice cream topping is the obvious go-to for this treat.  If you're tenting it, ice cream in a cooler over the weekend may not work.  If you've got access to a fridge with a freezer, ice cream works a lot better.  Or maybe you want to create Pie Iron dessert with it?  If you make up a pie iron dessert, I'd love to hear about it.

What you need:

• 4 1/2 cups crushed red raspberries (strawberries also work, HERE is my friend's recipe)
• 6 Tbsp Ball Real Fruit Classic Pectin
  
• 1/2 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 Tbsp lemon juice

What to do:

• Prepare your boiling water canner and your separate pot of simmering water for lids and bands
• Combine cocoa powder and pectin in a medium glass bowl, stirring until evenly blended.  Set aside
• Combine crushed raspberries and lemon juice in a large saucepan.  Whisk in pectin mixture until dissolved.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.  Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim off foam.
• Ladle hot chocolate raspberry sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Apply band until it is fingertip tight.
• Process jars in your boiling water canner for 10 minutes.  Remove jars and cool.

If you're feeling generous, this has been well received when I have given it as a gift.  

I also want to clarify that I only use canning recipes from sources I trust to know about food safety.  Food preservation is not something I mess around with, experiment, or tweak.  I trust Ball and I trust the author of the blog I linked to earlier, I call her my Canning Guru.

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