I don’t know about you, but I drink hot chocolate all year long, not just during Hallmark movie season – and you might, too, if you knew how insanely easy it is to made a stellar cup of chocolate from scratch!
Hot Chocolate
Course: BeveragesDifficulty: Easy1
Serving5
minutesIngredients
2 oz. chocolate, from a bar of best-quality chocolate
7-10 oz. milk
Whipped cream or marshmallows for garnish (optional)
Directions
- Place the chocolate into a tightly sealable, microwavable container. Add milk.
- Microwave, uncovered, 30 seconds, 100% power. Cover tightly and shake vigourously, about 30 shakes. Repeat this process until the chocolate has fully melted. (You will eventually need to use a tea towel, because the container will get hot, and some chocolatey steam may escape.)
- (Garnish with whipped cream or marshmallows and serve immediately.)
I’d call this hot chocolate “restaurant quality,” but most of the hot chocolate I’ve been served hasn’t been nearly this good. This chocolate is rich with a flavor so deep you won’t believe your taste buds. If you knew a cafe that served a hot chocolate this good, you’d be going back again and again and bringing all your friends.
There’s a difference between cocoa and hot chocolate. They’re both delicious, but hot chocolate has a more luscious texture. If you start with the right chocolate, with a flavor you love and the level of sweetness that you desire, making hot chocolate requires you to simply melt the chocolate into the milk.
Social Learning
I use a canning jar or a repurposed jam jar for microwaving and shaking the chocolate.
Your favorite type of milk probably works just fine. I use 2% milk, and it’s excellent.
The Chocolate…
The better the chocolate, the better the hot chocolate, so splurge on something high-quality. Easier said than done. Valrhona has always had a special place in my pallate. I used to have a couple local places to buy it, but no longer. The last time I ordered some from Amazon, I wasn’t happy with it. (I think it had seen some too-hot temperatures.) I’m probably going to have to make periodic trips to France to get it.
A lot of my friends swear by Guittard, or Scharffen Berger, but I never seem to bump into them in the places I shop, either.
So what I do – and I realize this is going to sound very culturally-elite, but what the hell … the truth is the truth – is stop by my favorite chocolate shop, and ask for blocks of their house chocolate – it’s fantastic. It is rather expensive, but it’s luscious.
Doesn’t matter if it’s milk or dark. Doesn’t matter how sweet or bittersweet it is. Just get a chocolate that is exactly the way you like it: exactly sweet enough, exactly dark enough … whatever. If you like it on its own, it’ll make a perfect cup of chocolate without needing any sweeteners.
Amount of Milk…
In terms of texture, the lesser amount of milk will give you something along the lines of liquid chocolate: quite thick and rich. Made for slow sipping. You could go less if you dare. The greater amount of milk will give you something still remarkable, but a bit easier to drink. Go above the max, and you’ll water down the flavor of the chocolate too much – at least in my opinion.
In terms of quantity, the smaller amount of milk will yeild enough hot chocolate to fill a standard-size coffee cup. The larger amount will fill a mug. This hot chocolate is so rich, though, that you could stretch either the greater of smaller amount to two small servings, and they’d still be pretty satisfying.
The Backstory
I love hot chocolate, and I have a couple of recipes for it on this blog. But it never occurred to me how insanely easy it could be!
Speaking of expensive chocolate, when I was in college, I was broke most of the time. I ate a lot of hot dogs and bologna sandwiches. Two things came of that: first, that’s what got me started cooking. I figured that it was the least expensive way to eat well. That turned out to be 100% true. It’s not the least expensive way to eat, but it is the least expensive way to eat well. Second, I vowed that when I did have money to spend, that I was never going to feel bad about spending it on food. And I don’t have an ounce of regret about that.
Insanely Easy Hot Chocolate
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I am a winter time hot chocolate drinker, but good chocolate does make a difference.
I agree about not feeling guilty spending money on foods you enjoy. I am a pretty decent cook, and with good ingredients can turn food into something really enjoyable. That being said, we are content with very simple foods also.
I couldn’t agree with you more about being content with simple foods!
So easy and I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks, Angie!
It’s been cold and windy here where I live Jeff. I may need a hot chocolate…
You and me both, Gary! Get yourself on a plane, fly half-way around the world, and I’ll happily make you one.
Thanks, Jeff. That would be awesome.
Talk about the ultimate chocolate lovers indulgence! This hot chocolate is a total game changer. It’s fast, easy to make and requires hardly any ingredients. Also, that was a great tip about using a higher quality chocolate!!
Thanks, Heidi!
A trip to France to buy chocolate? Oh, twist my arm. I guess I’ll go along. I mean that would give you more suitcases for the return trip, right? This hot chocolate sounds fantastic! It’s a weirdly chilly, rainy, cloudy day here in the mountains…and a cup of this HoCho sounds lovely right now. P.S. I also swear by Guittard!
A plan is forming … let’s both go to France on a chocolate-buying trip. We’ll each bring an empty suitcase. We had a cold, mostly rainy Memorial Day weekend, that was perfect for hot chocolate!
Having never even tried coffee or tea, liquid chocolate has always been my drink of choice. For every day drinking, I’m a cocoa fanatic (and you are so right — the quality of your chocolate/cocoa makes all the difference) but, on special occasions, bring on the thick, rich hot chocolate! I need to find a good, sealable microwave container to try this!
Wait, you’ve never even tried coffee? Anyway, I use canning jars for things like this. You can make two cups in one jar, filling it less than half full, which leaves lots of room for shaking. I realize that a canning jar might not be perfect for the microwave in theory, but I’ve never had one crack or shatter using it this way.
Yes please!
¡¡Hola Jeff!! Me has dado en mi punto flaco, ¡¡el chocolate!! Me encanta el chocolate y cualquier receta que contenga chocolate, me hago auténtica fan de la receta.
Yo suelo tomar más chocolate caliente en invierno, aquí en España, es algo como cultural, chocolate con churros, chocolate con buñuelos…te revive. Aquí lo hacemos bastante espesito, y tampoco en todos los sitios lo encuentras de calidad, hay que saber también buscarlo.
La receta que has hecho de chocolate caliente, además de rica es bien fácil y apta para cualquier cocinillas. Besitos.
Thank you so much! Of course, I drink it more often in winter, too – but I do love it any time of year.
Jeff, I’m totally with you, hot chocolate is a year-round thing, especially when it’s this easy and indulgent!
Thanks!
I generally prefer hot chocolate in winter, but I may have occasionally a mug on a rainy chilly summer day, too. And if a generous splash of Irish cream is added, then I can enjoy it all year round haha.
Well there you go! I agree!
Next time I travel to France to visit our family, I must bring back more chocolate, note to myself! We love hot chocolate in Winter, so I must try yours, it looks insanely delicious. It is too hot in our Summer heat for rich hot drinks. You have a Hallmark movie season? Is that another American tradition? Sounds great. I love how over in the U.S. you have specific foods to suit particular events. We do pies for the football, I will think further on that. Great post, thanks Jeff.
Yes, although the Hallmark Channel produces movies all year long, the main thrust of their buisness, it seems, it producing Christmas movies. They play them on two different channels non-stop during the Christmas season, and in every one of them, the protagonists are drinking cocoa, sitting out doors on a park bench, oblivious to piles of icy snow all around them. It’s grown into quite a phenomenon here. Although … I think they’re mostly shot in Canada, and now that the orange clown has deeply insulted and alienated our northern friends and neighbors, I wonder what impact that will have?
I’ll admit to being a winter enjoyer of hot chocolate. If ONLY I had a local chocolate shop to pop in to! How lucky you are.
Believe me, I realize that all the time!
Cheers to hot chocolate year-round. I’m one of those people, for sure. I love that this recipe is all about using the chocolate we love, without limits. 🙂 ~Valentina
Thank you, Valentina!
it’s winter here so hot chocolate is perfect! We are even having some cold nights here in sunny Queensland.
sherry
Time to break out those chocolate bars!
Im not sure which I like more, the hot chocolate or the whipped cream- but yes I drink it all year and love it.
I know, there’s something about whipped cream on chocolate that beats a marshmallow any day.