Hot chocolate is one of those drinks that, if prepared right, will treat you in a way that you can forget all your troubles and feel yourself in wonderland. Drink it on a cold winter evening, and just by grabbing your hot mug and inhaling the heavenly smells will fill you up with energy and vitality.
Actually the trick to make this kind of hot chocolate is not in the method, but in the ingredients. See my tips on that below.
It Is Called Hot Chocolate For A Reason
The worst enemy of this drink is those commercial versions that, for some reason, just tend to forget about the fact that this treat is actually called hot chocolate for a reason.
Hot: You must serve this drink at a very high temperature. Warm cocoa is just not the same thing what you are craving for when reading this recipe.
Chocolate: that is, chocolate. That simple. Not cocoa, not some artificial powder with mystery ingredients. In fact cocoa is not the same as chocolate. Although both are made from cacao beans, but the former has no cocoa butter content.
So please do yourself a flavor and forget commercial powdered versions. Try this recipe first, make sure to make it hot. Then you can experiment with changing the chocolate content according to your taste.
Tips On Making The Best Hot Chocolate
Use quality chocolate. Period. This is the single most important tip. Forget chocolate chips, use the kind of chocolate that you would indulge eating by itself.
This drink is best with high cocoa content (70-75%) dark chocolate. But feel free to experiment with lower cocoa content chocolate, or even partly milk chocolate.
To make an epic hot chocolate, you do need to use heavy cream. It not only adds silkiness and richness, but its fat content will enhance the flavors in your drink. But if for any reason you decide not to use cream, you can of course substitute that with milk.
As far as milk goes, hot chocolate is best with whole milk. But again, feel free to experiment with lower fat content versions.
How To Measure Ingredients
Even if you don’t have a scale, measuring out the ingredients for your hot chocolate is easy.
You need 35 grams of dark chocolate for one cup of hot chocolate, that’s about 1.16 ounces. But fortunately quality chocolate comes in 100 g or 3.5 oz bars. Simply use 1/3 bar for each cup and you are good to go.
If for any reasons you don’t have measuring cups at hand, you need 45 ml of heavy cream and 180 ml of milk for one serving. With a scale, measure out the same quantity in grams: 45 g heavy cream and 180 g milk. That’s not an exact conversion, but will very much do for this recipe.
Break chocolate into small bites. Place chunks in a mug.
Bring heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan, until small bubbles start to form. Pour onto chocolate. Wait for one minute, don't stir.
After one minute, stir chocolate and heavy cream vigorously until it becomes a homogenous, thick mix.
Bring milk to a very hot temperature, almost boiling. Pour half over the chocolate mix, stir well. Pour the other half and stir completely. Serve immediately.