Best Hot Chocolate Ever!

Another fantastic memory from growing up was playing around with hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows on the fire. We live in a funny world… so for health and safety reasons I’ll leave out the toasted marshmallows – probably best to just put marshmallows in the hot chocolate!

Here’s my favourite recipe for hot chocolate.

INGREDIENTS
1 Pint of full fat milk
200 ml of Cream
100g dark chocolate (60% works best)
50g milk chocolate
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
Cinnamon / star anise / nutmeg (for flavour)

METHOD

• Pour milk and cream into a saucepan add cocoa powder, icing sugar, salt and your spices (choose the flavours you like).
• Bring to the boil and remove from heat. If using whole spices, remember to strain off but leave long enough to infuse.
• In a bain marie, melt the chocolate.
• Add melted chocolate to the infused milk then reheat but don’t boil. Using a hand blender or whisk, blend until frothy.

Chef’s Tips

• If it’s not thick enough, add some cornflour when reheating the milk, although the cream should do the trick.
• Kids in bed… why not add some brandy or whiskey?  Apologies if I have offended serious whiskey connoisseurs!