ames
Beard once said that "A steaming cup of hot chocolate with
buttered toast is surely one of the most heart warming,
body-warming, and taste-satisfying combinations known to
man". What James Beard was talking about was not the
children's drink made by pouring hot water over a mound of
instant powder. No, he was talking about hot
chocolate made with just two simple ingredients, pure dark chocolate and
creamy milk.
When you make hot chocolate with these two wonderful ingredients it tastes
so much better than instant. It is very easy to make as all you do is heat
the chocolate and milk together in a saucepan on the stove until hot. Then,
to make it nice and foamy, I like to insert a hand held blender (or a wire
whisk) into the hot chocolate. What is important to know is that both the type (bittersweet or semisweet)
and brand (Lindt, Cadbury, Ghirardelli, etc) of chocolate, as
well as the fat content (skim, 2%, whole, or cream) of the
milk, affects the flavor and richness
of the hot chocolate. So you may want to try different
types and brands of chocolate until you find one you like, and use either milk or
cream, depending on how rich and creamy you want your hot
chocolate to be. The
adventurous may even like to add a stick of cinnamon or
maybe a dash of chili pepper to the warming milk and
chocolate. And the coffee lover can enjoy a mocha
flavor by replacing half the milk with freshly brewed
coffee. But the real secret to a great cup of hot
chocolate, that satisfies the child in us all, is a spoonful
of whipped cream or a handful of marshmallows floating on
the top.Drinking
chocolate is steeped in history. Columbus is
credited with being the first to discover chocolate.
When he arrived in the New World (what we now
think was either Mexico or Nicaraguan) in 1502 he found
the Aztecs drinking a
chocolate beverage made with cocoa beans from the tropical tree Theobroma
which translates to "Food of the Gods". Although the
Spaniards found the beverage too bitter tasting for their
palates they were amazed to see the Aztec's emperor,
Montezuma, consuming up to 50 cups
a day. The Aztecs made the beverage by first roasting and then grinding
the cocoa beans to a paste, and then adding the paste to water, along
with chili peppers and vanilla. The Spaniards did take
some of the cocoa beans back to Spain but, as expected, they
were not a hit. It wasn't until Hernando Cortez, around 1520, brought
more of the cocoa beans back to Spain from
his trip to the New World that the Spaniards found a way to process the
beans to make them more palatable. They did this by adding sugar and spices (vanilla, cinnamon,
cloves, hazelnuts, almonds, orange flower water) to the chocolate paste.
Once the paste was allowed to solidify it was added to water or milk.
This drink immediately became popular with the Spaniards. The beverage spread throughout Europe but as chocolate was
expensive it was enjoyed primarily by the upper class.
Everything changed when a Dutchman, by the
name of Van Houten, in the 1820s, discovered a way to remove most of the
fat from the cocoa beans to produce what we now call cocoa
powder. Almost overnight cocoa powder replaced
chocolate in the making of hot chocolate (hot cocoa) and somehow the
drink lost its appeal with adults.
Place the milk and chopped chocolate (can
also add sugar to taste) in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk periodically
until the mixture reaches the boiling point and is foamy. Remove
from heat and if more foam is desired, use a wire whisk or hand held blender to whip the
hot chocolate.
Pour the hot chocolate into two cups and
garnish with a dollop of whipped cream (or handful of marshmallows) and a dusting of cocoa powder or grated
chocolate.
Note: To make hot or iced mocha
simply replace 1/2 cup (120 ml) milk with your favorite brewed coffee. Proceed with the recipe but if you want it iced, let the mixture cool and then
pour over ice cubes. Garnish with whipped cream and grated chocolate.
Makes 2 - 8 ounce (240 ml) servings.
Beard, James. Beard on Food.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.Johnson, Eve. Eating My Words.
Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2003.Kurlansky, Mark.
Choice Cuts. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.Marranca, Bonnie. A Slice of Life.
Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2003.McGee, Harold. On
Food and Cooking. New York: A Fireside Book, 1984.Rinzler, Carol Ann. The Book of
Chocolate. New York: St. Martin's Press,
1977.
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