 Ah, Chocolate. The food so beloved that eating it wasn't enough, so we turned it into a drink, too.
I came up with this Drinking Chocolate recipe when I had a hankering for a hot chocolate made with dark chocolate, and didn't want to pay $6 for one at a cafe. I Know that many cafes' secret to amazing hot chocolate is using actual chocolate pieces, stirred and melted into hot milk. I decided to take this concept one step further for my home pantry version: instead of pieces of chocolate, why not grind the pieces into dust, making them ready to spoon into a mug or glass to enjoy in any weather? Then I thought about a stumbling block with the version - straight chocolate does not take well to being mixed directly with water - it 'seizes'. The problem is, to make iced chocolate the powdered chocolate mixture needs to be mixed with with a splash of freshly boiled water in order for it to melt, so that when the cold milk is added the chocolatiness gets distributed throughout. Solution: I added a little sugar and cocoa. Flavour-wise the sweetness of the sugar and the earthy bitterness of the cocoa cancel each other out somewhat, but it also gives this Drinking Chocolate blend the alchemy it needs to be stirrable, dissolvable and quick. The end result has been a big hit with my family. For the grown-ups, I make it solely with 70% chocolate drops, while for my children I do a mixture of milk and dark. I should also mention - a jar of this Drinking Chocolate makes a lovely little gift. We hope you love it:)  On chilly mornings the humble bowl of porridge is a comforting, nourishing way to start the day. While the go-to oats used for porridge tend to be rolled oats and quick oats, steel cut oats also have a devoted fan base, and if you've tried them you'll understand why.
There are just as many people out there who aren't that familiar with steel cut oats, and we are often asked for advice on how to prepare them. But first, a brief explanation on the different forms that oats come in. The least processed are oat groats where the oat grain is left whole. These take the longest cooking time. The next stage in processing is steel cut oats, where the whole oats are cut into smaller fragments with steel blades. After this, they are rolled and flattened to produce rolled oats. And finally, these rolled oats are cut finer again to make quick oats. Now we'll walk you through the preparation of steel cut oats, with the aim of demystifying it for the novices & hopefully inspiring you to get in the kitchen and pop a pot of steel cut oats on the stove. |
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