make a good hot chocolate

was a collection of three flavoured hot chocolate mixes. :)

Gotta try ‘em out!

No good hot chocolate is made with a base of water! And you can skip the powdered mixes, too. Sheesh!

What you do is this: You blend good cocoa (maybe 1/4 cup? Mom did it by eye and so do I) and sugar(1/2 cup) plus a dash of salt into a small amount of water with a fork, and cook it until it’s smooth (not long). Then you add milk (4 cups or so) plus a teaspoon or so of real vanilla. Whisk it, then heat it just until tiny bubbles begin to form at the edges of the pan. Alternatively, you can use a couple of squares of baking chocolate in place of the cocoa.

Top with small marshmallows or, better yet, with REAL cream whipped fresh and sweetened. It’s good with cinnamon added (put a dash on top of the whipped cream or add a bit in with the cocoa) or with a tablespoon of seedless raspberry jam stirred into the mug. Or serve with a peppermint stick for stirring.

As for the hot chocolate made in coffee shops…Maybe it’s different where you live, but I haven’t been at all impressed. I don’t drink coffee but I know good hot chocolate. It seems to me that the coffee shops focus on coffee (not surprisingly, since most adults choose it over cocoa) and just do the hot chocolate as sort of a token. It’s weak, the flavor has no depth, the whipped topping adds nothing.

If you can, use whole milk.

It wasn’t too bad. I was able to heat up the water properly this time, and I discovered that more powder is better.

I think I should try it with heated milk next time. I’m still not entirely liking hot chocolate made with water. I need to learn how to steam milk like they do at Starbucks.