Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

Milk

Drinking Chocolate

Why drinking chocolate and not cocoa?  When cocoa beans are processed,  the fatty parts are called cocoa butter,  which is used to make chocolate.  The non fatty parts are called cocoa powder.   Drinking chocolate is cocoa powder with things added to it,  such as sugar and milk powder.  It does not go lumpy when you sprinkle it on the milk and so is easier to cook with than cocoa powder.)

Marshmallows  (only if you like them!)

Equipment you will need:

A saucepan
A wooden spoon  (why wooden?   You will be stirring hot liquids and wooden spoons don’t get hot while you are using them.   They also don’t scrape the bottom of your pan while you are stiring)
A teaspoon - this will be used for measuring.  It is a small spoon that measures 5 millilitres of powder or liquid.

Skills you will use:

Heating up milk on the hob

REMEMBER – check with the grown up in charge before starting this recipe and show them the recipe you are going to do.    Get out the ingredients and equipment you will need BEFORE you start – so you can concentrate on the cooking!

How to make your Hot Chocolate:

1.  For each person,  measure out three quarters of a mug or cup of milk and pour into a pan.

2.  Put the pan on the hob.  Choose the ring that is either the same size or smaller that the bottom of your pan.

3.  Switch on the hob so it is on a medium heat – you want to slowly warm the milk up.  If you heat it up too fast,  parts of the milk will get too hot and burn.     When milk gets too hot and starts to boil,  the taste of the milk changes.  For this recipe,  you don’t want to boil the milk.

4.  While the milk is heating up,  sprinkle a teaspoon of hot chocolate powder for each person over the top of the milk and stir with a wooden spoon.

5.  How long it takes to warm up the milk will depend on how much milk you have in your pan.  But it won’t take long,  so keep slowly stirring the milk and after two or three minutes take a small spoonful of milk and carefully test it.  Is it the right temperature for drinking?   You decide.    Don’t worry if when you put it into cups it seems too cool.  You can always put it back in the pan and heat it up a bit more.   Heating milk in a pan is an important cooking skill and can be tricky at first.   If it is too hot,  you can take the pan off the heat and add a bit more cold milk.

6.  When you are tasting the milk to see if it is hot enough,  also think whether it is chocolatey enough.  Do you need a bit more drinking chocolate powder?  If so,  sprinkle an extra spoonful on the top, stir it in and then test again.   You are the cook,  you decide!

6.   When the milk if the right temperature,  turn off the heat.  If you are using marshmallows,  put the marshmallows in the cups BEFORE you pour the milk into the cups.   This means that the marshmallows go a little bit gooey,  which makes them taste extra nice.

7.   Carefully pour the milk into the cups.     The hot chocolate is ready to serve!

It goes really well with Homemade Shortbread

A Story about Hot Chocolate!?:

Hot Chocolate and Shortbread