For Valentine’s day, the (long-suffering) boyfriend, partner-in-crime and co-pet parent of all our beasties plus two goldfish, prepared the most wonderful meal. With it at the end came the best chocolate sauce. And he had loads leftover, so it seemed a spectacular pity to let it go to waste. I decided it would go great in various things, including a milkshake. We had bananas, we had ice-cream and milk and we would have also had caramel sauce if I hadn’t burnt it. So a milkshake practically made itself.

The best part of this chocolate sauce is that it tastes like melted top-quality stuff and is made with basic pantry ingredients, barring one fancy one which is easily swappable. The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate sauce

• 1,5 cups sugar
• 3-quarters of a cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1,5 cups milk
• 1,5 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tot Cointreau (or 1 tbsp orange zest)

Add sugar, cocoa powder, half a cup of milk, the flour and the salt into a pan and bring to a slow boil, stirring continuously until it’s a thick paste and ingredients mixed up. Add the rest of the milk and slowly bring to boil again, while stirring. Once it’s reached a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer and add the vanilla and the Cointreau. Give it a regular little stir as it cools or it goes too thick, and ta da! Best. Sauce. Ever.

Once you have your sauce, you are ready for your mikshake!

Banoffee Milkshake

• 8 scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 2 cups milk (less if you want it thicker)
• 2-3 tbsp chocolate sauce
• 2 tbsp caramel sauce (buy it or Google the recipe because my attempt was a disaster)
• 1 chopped banana
• more chocolate sauce to coat glasses

Add ingredients to a blender and blitz to your preferred consistency.  Pour some chocolate sauce into the bottom of the glass and turn the glass slowly, at an angle, to coat the inside. Pour in the milkshake and shlurp away!