Hot chocolate, with or without whisky
We all know that hot chocolate is a mix of Ovaltine or Milo and boiled milk and sugar, don’t we? Such is the way we have developed that the beauties of long ago have been cut about and replaced with packets and pacy preparations.
Look again, and go back to the roots of hot chocolate. Give yourself a treat, every now and again, or whenever you’ve got some very special chocolate and some very expensive vanilla beans. Give them a run together.
3 cups milk
25 g best dark chocolate
2 dessertspoons honey
1 leftover vanilla bean, any seeds scraped into the milk
Heat the milk with the seeds gently on a low heat, add the chocolate and honey until they all meld, and then gradually allow the heat to increase. Whisk furiously if you are doing this on top of the stove, putting as much air as you can into the milk. As the mixture gets close to the boil, remove from the heat, and whisk as if your life depended upon it.
You can save some muscle if you have either a wand-processor of the Bamix style, or a home cappuccino machine.
Hot chocolate has to be fluffy, or it just ain’t hot chocolate.