drinking chocolate

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.