by the light of a lost christmas day
For insmallpackages, my favorite hot chocolate recipe. Complete with unnecessary pictures and step-by-step instructions.
I make my hot chocolate the old fashioned way - by melting chocolate into milk on the stove - and add stuff to make it kind of spicy and not too sweet. So, here we go.
Start with a bar of decent quality chocolate. I like this stuff, because I like chili pepper in my hot chocolate. It's not actually spicy, it's more of a scent thing, I find.
If you don't like chili in your chocolate you can use just about any chocolate bar. Mint or lemon or sea salt or raspberry or really anything. Even plain chocolate. I wouldn't use anything with a filling, like caramel or some mint chocolates, but other than that just grab whatever you like.
Whatever chocolate you choose, you'll need to put some milk in a mug. Like so:
I use this tiny, handle-less mug because I'm pretentious. Leave some room at the top because you're going to increase the volume. With chocolate.
Pour the milk into a saucepan. Like so:
You should probably use a heavier saucepan than the one I'm using here so as to insure even heat distribution. I just use this one 'cus it's tiny.
Now break off a big piece of your chocolate bar. I use about this much for my tiny mug:
It's all highly scientific. You can use a little more or a little less, depending on the amount of hot chocolate you're making and how chocolaty you like it.
Take a kitchen knife and chop up the chocolate into little pieces. Turn on the stove to about medium-low somewhere during this process.
You want to get as small as possible here, since the idea is to melt all the chocolate smoothly, but don't worry too much if there are some larger chunks.
Dump the chocolate into the milk and leave it alone for a minute.
You want the chocolate to warm up and start to melt, but don't let it sit too long or the milk on the bottom of the pan will scald.
Add some things. I add a tiny drop of vanilla and a tiny pinch of cinnamon but again, sky's the limit.
If you don't have chili chocolate but you want to try it, just add some chili powder at this point. Same result. Or don't, ground cloves or any warming spice might be nice. Nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, chinese five spice, whatever. Almond extract, perhaps. Maybe you like oregano in your chocolate. I don't judge.
Take a clean wooden spoon or a rubber spatula and slowly, gently, continuously stir the chocolate until it has all melted.
It'll turn about this color. The color hot chocolate usually is. Be sure you can't see any individual specs of unmelted chocolate, or your cocoa will be grainy and there'll be a bunch of chocolate stuck to the bottom of your mug, but be careful not to take too long or you'll scald the milk and a skin will form. Gross.
Pour (carefully) back into your mug. Notice that the mug is now full of hot, spicy, chocolaty goodness.
Enjoy.
I make my hot chocolate the old fashioned way - by melting chocolate into milk on the stove - and add stuff to make it kind of spicy and not too sweet. So, here we go.
Start with a bar of decent quality chocolate. I like this stuff, because I like chili pepper in my hot chocolate. It's not actually spicy, it's more of a scent thing, I find.
If you don't like chili in your chocolate you can use just about any chocolate bar. Mint or lemon or sea salt or raspberry or really anything. Even plain chocolate. I wouldn't use anything with a filling, like caramel or some mint chocolates, but other than that just grab whatever you like.
Whatever chocolate you choose, you'll need to put some milk in a mug. Like so:
I use this tiny, handle-less mug because I'm pretentious. Leave some room at the top because you're going to increase the volume. With chocolate.
Pour the milk into a saucepan. Like so:
You should probably use a heavier saucepan than the one I'm using here so as to insure even heat distribution. I just use this one 'cus it's tiny.
Now break off a big piece of your chocolate bar. I use about this much for my tiny mug:
It's all highly scientific. You can use a little more or a little less, depending on the amount of hot chocolate you're making and how chocolaty you like it.
Take a kitchen knife and chop up the chocolate into little pieces. Turn on the stove to about medium-low somewhere during this process.
You want to get as small as possible here, since the idea is to melt all the chocolate smoothly, but don't worry too much if there are some larger chunks.
Dump the chocolate into the milk and leave it alone for a minute.
You want the chocolate to warm up and start to melt, but don't let it sit too long or the milk on the bottom of the pan will scald.
Add some things. I add a tiny drop of vanilla and a tiny pinch of cinnamon but again, sky's the limit.
If you don't have chili chocolate but you want to try it, just add some chili powder at this point. Same result. Or don't, ground cloves or any warming spice might be nice. Nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, chinese five spice, whatever. Almond extract, perhaps. Maybe you like oregano in your chocolate. I don't judge.
Take a clean wooden spoon or a rubber spatula and slowly, gently, continuously stir the chocolate until it has all melted.
It'll turn about this color. The color hot chocolate usually is. Be sure you can't see any individual specs of unmelted chocolate, or your cocoa will be grainy and there'll be a bunch of chocolate stuck to the bottom of your mug, but be careful not to take too long or you'll scald the milk and a skin will form. Gross.
Pour (carefully) back into your mug. Notice that the mug is now full of hot, spicy, chocolaty goodness.
Enjoy.