Real hot chocolate goes beyond those familiar grocery store
packets and dehydrated marshmallows
When I was a kid, my mom made hot chocolate using boiling water
and Swiss Miss chocolate packets with those mini marshmallows that
taste like cardboard.
Real hot chocolate goes beyond those familiar grocery store packets and dehydrated marshmallows
When I was a kid, my mom made hot chocolate using boiling water and Swiss Miss chocolate packets with those mini marshmallows that taste like cardboard.
It was the only hot chocolate my brothers, sisters and I knew, and personally, I could take it or leave it. When I wanted a hot drink, tea was my preferred beverage of choice.
One of the best things about becoming an adult is trying new, exotic foods, or making something your mother did, but a bit differently. When I moved into my first apartment, I made hot chocolate using Swiss Miss and warmed milk. It made quite a difference.
I’ve learned quite a bit about hot chocolate since then, however, and boy, has it changed over the years. In fact, a few years ago at my daughter’s Girl Scout meeting I learned that hot chocolate wasn’t always hot. The Aztecs used the valuable cocoa bean (it was not only an important food item, but was also used as money) in a cold chocolate drink that was mixed with wine and chili peppers. It wasn’t a sweet drink at all.
In the early 1500s, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez brought chocolate back to Spain, according to George Murray, an author for the Ezine Articles Web site. Cooks tinkered with the Aztec’s drink, serving it hot, sweetened with sugar and without the chili peppers. The Spanish guarded the recipe for their new beverage, and it took more than 100 years before word of the drink began to spread across Europe. It was the English who first added milk to their chocolate, and in the mid-18th century, chocolate began to evolve past its liquid form and into candies, cookies and cakes.
Today, many different hot chocolate recipes and dry mixes can be found in grocery and specialty stores and on the Internet. My family’s favorite is Mexican hot chocolate, which my husband makes using chunks of Mexican chocolate he grates into a fine powder then mixes with hot milk and cinnamon. Nestle makes Abuelita, a brand of Mexican hot chocolate that used to come only in tablets, but now comes in packets like Swiss Miss or even in a chocolate paste that can be squeezed into a cup. That seems wrong somehow, so we stick with traditional chunks. We’ve also tried the Aztec hot chocolate recipe below, but the kids prefer the sweeter recipes. Hot chocolate is the perfect complement to a freshly baked Christmas cookie.
Aztec Hot Chocolate
(Recipe courtesy of RecipeZaar)
2 c. skim milk
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. honey
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground red pepper
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whipped cream
In a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar, honey, ginger, cloves and red pepper.
Heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Reduce to medium and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
With wire whisk, stir in cocoa and vanilla. Stir briskly until frothy. Serve in warm cups. Top with whipped cream.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
3.3 oz. tablet of Mexican chocolate, such as Nestle’s Abuelita
2-1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
Finely grate chocolate using hand-held grater. Add grated chocolate to milk in heavy saucepan. Simmer ingredients, stirring mixture until well combined. Add sugar and cinnamon. Makes two cups.
Mexican chocolate is traditionally beaten to a froth with a wooden implement called a molinillo. You can create this effect by putting small amounts of hot chocolate at a time in a blender and briefly “pulsing” it.
Parisan Hot Chocolate
(Recipe courtesy of RecipeZaar)
1 c. whole milk
1/3 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. sugar
5 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
Simmer milk, cream and sugar together until just boiling. Stir in the chocolate until melted. Serve warm.
Decadent Hot Chocolate
(Recipe courtesy of about.com)
1 c. milk
1 c. half and half
8 tsp. sugar
1 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tbs. brown sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
Combine all ingredients in heavy saucepan except for vanilla; heat until chocolates melt and sugar dissolves. Pour half into a blender and mix until foamy. Return to the saucepan, and add vanilla. Stir briefly then serve.
