That’s right! Another recipe, and it’s a dandy: a hot chocolate meant to be savored.
Craig and Lisa invited us for homemade French onion soup last night. They also served a delightful salad, some tasty carrots, and, best of all, a rather odd dessert: a cup of hot chocolate (served with a slice of salty buttered toast).
But this is no ordinary hot chocolate.
This is:
Chocolat Chaud
(from It Must’ve Been Something I Ate by Jeffrey Steingarten — adapted from Pierre Hermé)Ingredients:
- 2-1/4 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup bottled still water
- 1/4 cup (generous) superfine granulated sugar
- 1 100-gm bar (3-1/2 ounces) dark bittersweet chocolate, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, or Lindt (see note, below), finely sliced with a serrated bread knife
- 1/4 cup (1 ounce or 28 gm) cocoa powder, loosely packed, preferably Valrhona
Instructions: In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together the milk, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the chopped chocolate and the cocoa and bring to a boil again, whisking until the chocolate and cocoa are dissolved and the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to very low.
Blend for 5 minutes with an immersion mixer or whirl the hot chocolate in a standard blender for half a minute, until thick and foamy.
Yield: Four 6-ounce cups of hot chocolate.
Note: I [Steingarten] use a dark chocolate containing close to 70 percent cocoa, though Lindt bittersweet also works just fine. The Mayans and the Aztecs considered the froth the best part. Today, five minutes with an immersion mixer or a blender accomplishes what a half hour of beating did long ago.
This stuff is delicious — a divine concoction. The food of the gods. It’s to be sipped, not quaffed.
Kris and I are preparing to venture out to find some good, high-quality chocolate with which to prepare this recipe for Jeremy and Jennifer tomorrow night.
The wikipedia gives us more on the history of cocoa.
The above is the fourth in my series of “Best Recipes Ever!” The other three are: Best Salsa Ever, Best Gingerbread Cookies Ever, and — my favorite — Best Clam Chowder Ever.
Sixteen years ago on this date, Kris accepted my application to be her sweetheart. We’ve been together ever since, happy and content despite our contrary natures. Today is the anniversary we mark, not our wedding anniversary.
Wow thank you so much for this recipe! I just got back from france and was trying to find a recipe for chocolate chaud, so I could share the wonder with my family. Thanks! My parents will be thrilled!