Hot Chocolate From Chocolate Chips & Bars | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TIP: Hot Chocolate From Chocolate Chips & Other Hard Chocolate

February 5, 2016 at 8:17 am · Filed under Beverages, Recipes, Tip Of The Day

It’s snow and ice today on the East Coast; when we look out the window we see…white. So we’re deferring our scheduled tip to tomorrow, to publish something more comforting:

Hot chocolate from chocolate chips, chocolate bars, even Hershey’s Kisses.

Even if you have no cocoa powder at home, you’re still in the chips if you have solid chocolate in any form. Baking chips are the easiest because you don’t have to chop them; although if you have a good chocolate bar—) or Lindt—the chocolate flavor will be better. First…

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COCOA AND HOT CHOCOLATE

You’re familiar with cocoa and hot chocolate, terms often used interchangeably. Technically, they’re different. There are also drinking chocolate and sipping chocolate—terms that don’t seem to have existed in the U.S. prior to the end of the 20th century (and the growth of the artisan food movement).

Cocoa or hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder and is less rich than hot chocolate. That’s because to make cocoa powder, roasted cocoa beans are ground to a thick paste and pressed between hydraulic plates, which squeeze out about half of the cocoa butter. Products made from cocoa powder are erroneously called hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate contains all the cocoa butter; and some better brands even add extra cocoa butter for richness and mouthfeel. It was the original hot chocolate, made in Switzerland by blending hot milk with chopped chocolate bars (THANK YOU, Switzerland!). Authentic hot chocolate is made from ground chocolate plus sugar.

Drinking chocolate/sipping chocolate are European terms for hot chocolate. The product has relatively large pieces of chocolate—disks or pellets, but also beads, shavings, or large ground pieces—that are then melted in hot milk or water. If you were to eat it, it would taste just like chocolate from a chocolate bar.

RECIPE: HOT CHOCOLATE FROM CHOCOLATE CHIPS & BARS

This is a very rich recipe, combining whole milk with half and half. If you want something less rich, use less half and half or all milk.

Prep time is 5 minutes, cook time is 15 minutes.

Chocolate Chips

Top: Chop up chocolate bars to make rich hot chocolate. Chocolate chipsalso work, especially top-quality ones from Barry Callebaut or Guittard, available at KingArthurFlour.com. The company also sells sugar-free chocolate chips. Bottom: Melt chocolate chips into hot chocolate.

Ingredients For 3-4 Mugs Or 6 Smaller Cups

2 cups milk

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bars*

Optional: 1 teaspoon sugar

Optional flavors: cinnamon, mint (extract, Junior Mints), orange zest

Optional toppings: whipped cream, chocolate shavings, sprinkles

*While semisweet chocolate is the standard, you can use milk chocolate or white chocolate. White hot chocolate is splendid:

Hot Chocolate Made From Solid Chocolate

Dutched & Natural Cocoa Powder

Preparation

1. COMBINE the milk and half-and-half in a saucepan. Warm slowly over medium-low heat. When the milk is very hot but not yet boiling, stir in the chocolate chips.

2. STIR until melted and taste. If it’s too rich, add more milk. If you’ve used a high percentage cacao bar and the chocolate is not quite sweet enough, add sugar one teaspoon at a time.

3. STIR in optional flavors. Pour into mugs and top as desired.

EVEN MORE HOT CHOCOLATE: RECIPES, FLAVORS & TIPS TO MAKE RICHER HOT CHOCOLATE

Everything you need to know.

The differences between cocoa and hot chocolate, including more types of, what we’ll categorize as, hot milk drinks flavored with chocolate.

The difference between regular and Dutched cocoa powder.

PHOTOS: Top: Melting a chocolate-covered marshmallow into hot chocolate at Dominique Ansel. Bottom: Natural (left) and Dutched cocoa powders. Photo courtesy SilkRoadSpices.ca.

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