How to make the perfect hot chocolate

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

Forget about instant chocolate powders from the shops and brew a couple of classic hot chocolate mugs, taking into account all the subtleties of preparation of this drink known to us.

Chocolate

The basis of the recipe is chocolate, so the final taste of the drink depends on its choice. Everything is simple here: choose high-quality tiles with a cocoa content of at least 70%. Some sources recommend making a drink only from such chocolate and serving it in small portions, like espresso, but we understand that not everyone is able to appreciate the pronounced bitterness of dark chocolate. To sweeten the drink, you can simply add a little sugar, but it is better to mix the base dark chocolate with milk: let the first one make up 70% of the drink, and the second, respectively, the remaining 30%. If you are making chocolate for children, the proportion may need to be adjusted equal to make the chocolate sweeter.

Often, some of the chocolate is replaced with cocoa powder in order to reduce the fat content of the finished drink, but if the issue of fat content in hot chocolate is not important for you, stick to the classic recipe below.

Milk or cream

Here, as with chocolate, it is better to mix both. The main thing, again, is to determine the correct proportion. Cream is added to chocolate in order to make the texture of the drink more creamy and silky, but adding it in large quantities means turning hot chocolate from a drink into a dessert, and an obscenely fatty dessert. That is why heavy cream in a recipe takes up less than a quarter of the total milk volume.

Additives

Speaking of hot chocolate, we must not forget about a variety of additives, the most popular of which are the “sweet” spices - cinnamon and vanilla. You can add spices to ready-made chocolate, or you can warm milk with a cinnamon stick or vanilla pod before adding chocolate. Slightly less popular is nutmeg, which is sprinkled on top of chocolate, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Be sure to add a small pinch of salt to the finished chocolate to enhance the sweetness of the drink.

A variety of liqueurs and spirits are also welcome in small quantities in the recipe.

We recommend keeping marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate chips and dusting sugar for decoration.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 450 ml of milk;
• 70 g dark chocolate (70%);
• 30 g milk chocolate;
• 75 ml cream (33%);
• ¼ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon;
• marshmallow;
• a pinch of salt.

Preparation

First, heat 150 ml of milk, remove from heat and prepare chocolate ganache by adding chocolate pieces to milk and stirring to melt.

Pour the remaining milk and cream into a saucepan, then add cinnamon and a pinch of salt.

Preheat the drink, but never boil it. Pour the chocolate into circles and place the marshmallows on top.