Diego's blog

How I make hot chocolate

When I was at university, I made a lot of hot chocolate. It was a way to meet new people ("Hey, we're making hot chocolate for 4, but we're three, wanna join?"), and to share some love, comfort, and happiness.

With my friend Michael, we even did this on a large scale by creating a hot chocolate association, and served 1100L+ of vegan hot chocolate! šŸŽ‰

I was surprised to see how bad people were at making hot chocolate, especially in Switzerland, where hot chocolate is usually "mix a powder with milk and microwave"... and doesn't even contain chocolate!

There's so much more to hot chocolate. I'll try to share here how I make and think about making hot chocolate most of the time.

Recipe template

The base template I use is quite simple. You'll want some milks, some dark chocolate, cocoa, something sweet, spices, and if possible a source of fat among them.

Ingredients for 4 mugs

Specific recipes

I know some of you might prefer an actual recipe than a list of options with which to experiment, so here's two. The first one is very rich. The kind of drink you say "Bon appetit" before everyone starts. The second is simpler to do.

The Albert is the recipe that we used most in the first meetings of Chocopoly. For this one, use 50cl of oat milk, 25cl of soy cream, 25cl of sweet condensed milk (made from 50cl of oat milk and ~150g sugar), 80g of 70% dark chocolate, one tablespoon of cocoa, a good amount of cinnamon, half a grated tonka bean, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of instant coffee. Top it with unsweetened vegan whipped cream and grated dark chocolate.

Sinnamon is easier to make. Use 1L of oat milk, 100g of dark chocolate, one tablespoon of cocoa, one overflowing tablespoon of Speculoos spread, a teaspoon of cinnamon (to taste), and a pinch of salt.

Instructions

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milks with the sweetener of your choice over medium-high heat until it starts to steam. Do not let it boil, which can happen very fast on high heat. For step 2 onwards, keep the heat so that the hot chocolate gently steams. You will likely need to lower first and adjust it as needed.
  2. Add the cocoa powder. If desired, add cinnamon and grate the tonka beans.
  3. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces and add them to the saucepan. It often helps to not put it all at once.
  4. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and well combined with the milk. To stir well, make sure you go all the way to the bottom and edges of the saucepan, so that the chocolate moves around.
  5. You can let it simmer for a bit, stirring regularly. It will make the hot chocolate more dense, but be careful that it does not boil.
  6. Taste what you've made (without burning your tongue) and add a bit of anything to match your taste. Iterate until you're happy. (never skip tasting)
  7. Pour into mugs and enjoy!

If your hot chocolate is too hot, which is likely, you can either let it cool down a bit in the mugs (it's faster than in the pan, but you might need to stir it a bit again just before serving), or tell your guests it's very hot. It's your responsibility that they don't burn their tongues!

Bonus for a great experience

That's the core, but if you want to make someone extra happy, here's a few directions for one more level up of your hot chocolate.

Chocolate cups

Just before serving, you can melt a few squares of chocolate on a plate in a microwave, and dip the top of your mugs in it. It's fantastic: you have pure dark chocolate melting on your lips that contrasts with the sweeter hot chocolate. And it looks wonderful, no inner child can resist this.

Chocolate cups

Be careful when melting the chocolate, as chocolate overcooks very fast, so the best is to put it for a very short time in the microwave (15-30s), stir a bit, and repeat if needed.

Whipped cream

If you want a richer drink, whipped cream is always a nice addition. You'll have a hard time finding a vegan one (there's this one), so you will likely need to make it. Most plant-based creams cannot be whipped, because they don't have enough fat. In general, any cream with less than 18% fat will not whisk well. Try to find some that are especially marketed as ā€œwhippableā€, like this one.

Also remember the two ingredients of whipped cream are fat and cold. Make sure the cream is cold, the bowl too can be put in the fridge before being used. If it doesnā€™t seem to work, you can stop, put everything back into the fridge (or freezer) and continue afterwards.

If you add whipped cream to your hot chocolate, take the small extra effort to grate a bit of dark chocolate on top of it, it adds a great feeling.

Last tip, most commercial whipped cream is sweetened, but you donā€™t have to! If your drink is already very sweet, for instance because you used condensed milk, donā€™t add sugar to the whipped cream, it'll balance nicely. On the other hand, if your drink is not sweet, maybe because you did not add any sweetener, then you can balance it with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar in the whipped cream. Of course, you can also go all in or all out with sugarā€¦ thatā€™s your preference. What about making cinnamon whipped cream?

Making the flavour richer

If you want to make the flavour explode even more in your palate, you can add any combination of:

Those three are flavour enhancers which will make any taste richer. Another one is fat, but adding oil to your chocolate is unlikely to make you happy. Though itā€™s half of the reason why using cream makes the hot chocolate better (the other reason being the texture).

I am speeeed šŸŽ

If you're in a rush, you can make it in the microwave. No shame in this! It's especially convenient if you're 1-3 or if you want to make custom hot chocolate for each of your guests.

If you do so, my tip is to start by melting 1 bar of chocolate in the mug in which you want to serve it, with just enough milk to cover the chocolate. Be careful not to overcook the chocolate: put it for 20-30s in the microwave, stir, and start again if needed. Then fill the rest of the mug with the milk, and the other ingredients, warm them up in the microwave and serve.

Experiment!

Hot chocolate can be a personal evolving art. Adapt to the situation, your desires or those of your guests.

You can add ginger, orange juice, use a water base and more chocolate instead of milk, you can not sweeten it or use different sugars. You can add spices, paprika, basil, mint, syrup, berries, speculoos spread, matcha, thyme, or peppermint extract. You can make it and put it in your fridge for a cold chocolate and use cocoa butter for more fat. You can use pepper or mix it with alcohol or put much less milk and have it dense. You can make it more Italian with maizena or Colombian and add cheese in it. You can let it simmer for a long time, use carob instead of cocoa. You can add garlic (yes) or just replace the milk.

Using a different milk

You can replace the oat milk with another plant-based milk and you will get a different result. Hereā€™s some of my opinion on the different milks:

Always make more

It's unlikely that your hot chocolate is going to be terrible, it's the cooking equivalent of taking pictures during the golden hour. Even if you swap cinnamon for curry powder (looking at you Matthew!), it'll be fine, as long as it's warm, has chocolate, and there are people to laugh with around. So make more!

Honestly, this might be the most important. Always make more. Knock on your neighbours' doors and offer them one. Invite your crush or this nice person you met yesterday "if they happen to be nearby", with no pressure to accept. Challenge your friends to invite someone that can come before the chocolate is hot! Go outside and invite the first person you see.

If it does turns out that you do have too much, put it in your fridge, it'll make a great hot or cold chocolate for the next day.

So, next time you make one, send me a picture, it will make me happy! šŸ˜Š

May you have a wonderful time! šŸ«