O.K. It's day 3 of my tribute to Valentine's Day here at The Art of Doing Stuff.
Day 1 we had Sexy Underwear, Day 2 we had Heart Shaped Tarts and now I have for you the 3rd ingredient every Valentine's Day is supposed to include. Chocolate.
I know that sexy underwear, hearts and chocolate are the staples of Valentine's Day because the marketers of the holiday have told me so in no uncertain terms.
It is a holiday we celebrate in honour of cupid. A made up cartoon person. If I were going to base a celebratory holiday around a made up cartoon person it would probably be Beaker from the Muppets. But alas, nobody asked for my input. Again.
For the chocolate portion of my Ode to Valentine's Day I've chosen to do a little experiment.
I've always liked the idea of making your own instant hot chocolate mix, but whenever I did it I found the results to be less than spectacular. So this week I gathered up all the instant hot chocolate recipes I could find on the Internet and tried them out. I'm completely sick of hot chocolate at this point. I should have treated it like a wine tasting and spit it out after every tasting.
Plus I burnt my tongue and it still feels all fuzzy. I would like to state the fact that I am not putting up with all of this for the sake of Valentine's Day. I'm doing it for you. My pals. My readers. The people who click on my ads. You nim nuts. Now look ... I'm getting all mushy.
After SEVERAL attempts, reconfigurations and tries, I came up with what I think is a reasonable Instant Hot Chocolate recipe. And here it is ...
You need Sugar.
Cocoa.
Non Dairy Creamer
Powdered Milk
Add equal parts of all ingredients to a container.
Shake or mix it up.
Add 3 Tablespoons to a mug.
Add 1 cup of hot milk.
Mix well. As in reallyyyyyyy well. The mix has a tendency to want to stay stuck at the bottom of the mug.
Top with some whipped cream ...
... and drink it down. Please drink responsibly.
With a lot of the recipes I tried, they were either too sweet or didn't have enough chocolate flavour. Using equal proportions of everything seems to have fixed this problem. If you try the recipe and find it isn't sweet enough, just add a bit more sugar. I can't believe I felt the need to tell you that ... but I did.
Also, a lot of instant hot chocolate recipes say you can just add water, but no matter what proportion of ingredients I tried, hot water just didn't cut it. It tasted like hot chocolate mix in water. Blech. So I recommend only using hot milk. But that is just a suggestion, you can do what you want. I'm not the boss of you.
Heck. I'd devote a holiday revolving around Beaker from the Muppets. What the hell do I know?
(I do however, demand, you top it with whipped cream. It is in honour of Valentine's Day and all.)
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is that a jadeite mug? love your blog and am a hot choc addict...there is a apparently a Mexican version with spice, have you tried that?
btw where in Canada, hard to find out
I almost cried when I saw your Jadite mug. My dad drank hot tea in "his" Jadite mug everyday. He liked the how the handle fit his fingers. I miss my daddy so much! Now i am crying.
For an easy hot chocolate for the masses (guests, kids, family) try this:
4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
12 oz chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt
heat milk/cream mixture in a pan until barly simmering
Add chocolate chips and turn off the heat remove map to cool surface
stir for about 3 minutes until chips are melted
Serve
For an additional tast treat, add flavoring like:
Peppermint extract
Almond extract
your favorite rum (I like Stroh's from Austia. Tastes like Life Save Butter Rum)
Add whipped cream or marshmallows (home made marshmallows are Da'bomb!!!)
I just wish you (that is a generic you, not a specific one!) could get the same kind of hot chocolates in Canada that we get here in NZ. They are like a flat white, with the frothy milk, but hot chocolate with a marshmallow or two on the side. If done properly, they don't need to be profaned with whipped cream...om nom nom
Beaker was my FAVORITE!!! Huh. Wonder if that's why I went into science.... nah.
Thanks for bringing back that memory! Pigs in Space was cool too though.
I got to go all nerd on you. Cupid is not just a cartoon character, well he is now but he was a roman god and son of Venus (goddess of love) and Mars, and was the god of desire, affection and erotic love. his Greek counterpart is Eros. He is often portrayed nude (or in a diaper) as a boy or baby with a bow and quiver of arrows, also sometimes with a helmet.
And now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Erin, thank you for saving me the embarrassment of saying all that! It was itching under my skin, but I always feel so picky when I try to talk about stuff.
Given his relationship with Psyche, I also think Cupid should be the God of the Blind Date!
And Thank You, dear Karen, for cocoa! Yummy, yummy cocoa!
Sounds yummy! I love Beaker. :)
HAH! I RECOGNIZE THAT JADITE MUG! I have several of them. I`m sure that mug was one of mine. That certainly solves the mystery of why my kitchen is
covered with a fine coat of POWDERED MILK AND COCOA and I can`t remember making Hot Chocolate Mix since a year ago Christmas.But then I can`t remember cleaning my kitchen since then either. Trade ya a mug for that jar?
Liz S is totally right - pour in a little milk with the powder and stir it up well into a runny paste and then add the rest. No clumps!!
I omit the sugar and nondairy creamer and use 70% chocolate to sweeten the deal.Scrumptious!
I am really really bad at partaking in any hot drink at home besides coffee that drips out of a machine. The reason being that I boil the crap out of whatever it is and subsequently burn my tongue because I am far too impatient to let it cool. I need one of those sink add-ons that dispenses near-boiling water. Or I need to use my brain and let things cool.
From trial and error when mixing powders and liquids (mostly baby formula), I have found that if you pour a little liquid in first that prevents the powder from sticking to the bottom. Sometimes when I was making my son a bottle there would be a clump of formula stuck on the bottom of the bottle no matter how much I shook the bottle.
Alexandra if you're sick of regular Hot-choc . . . do you like Chai tea?? I have been on a hot-choc kick lately and added a bag of Chai tea to the instant hot-choc mix (milk only), let it steep a bit and I love it. Hubby hates it but I think my tastes are more evolved . . . I've even made it more than once :)
Heidi - LOL. I think Alexandra was quoting me. I had said in the post that by the end of the experiment I was sick of hot chocolate! I *do* love Chai tea by the way. :) ~ karen
I once tried almond milk instead of regular dairy and OMG wow! It' just adds another nice layer of flavour as well as being lower in fat!
Thank you for sacrificing in order to bring us this recipe. :) For your hard work, I'll give it a shot.
St. Valentine was a real guy--cupid... not so much. Happy Beakermas!
I love how you try everything - every recipe out there. . . every way to season a cast iron pan.
I sure hope the size of your messes after experiments like this are equal to the size of your awesomness. If not, I'm calling it quits! However, if so, please blog about the art of not making a mess!!!
I am somewhat interested in your hot chocolate recipe but MOSTLY I am interested in the groovy labels on your groceries! I want to dig thru your trash & make stuff... PLUS I want your little Crown jar! I have vintage jars coming out my nose but I don't have a Crown jar! You Canadians get all the good stuff. :0)
Where were you earlier with this???? I just spent $10 on some instant Skinny Latte crap at the grocery store today!! I should not by anything until reading your blog for the week... new grocery rule!! AND BEAKER ROCKS!! That's all I have time to comment because now I am watching muppets on you tube! lmao
"I’m completely sick of hot chocolate at this point. I should have treated it like a wine tasting and spit it out after every tasting."
What a sacrifice. What dedication! I am totally making this hot chocolate recipe in honor of you.
Also because, as much as I love reading your blog, this is the only "stuff" I think I am actually capable of doing. And barely.
<3
We've been making a similar version to this one for years now, only minus the non-dairy creamer & milk (sorry, we're counting calories!!).
The 1:1:1 ratio is key here. Do you add any salt? I put about 1 tsp into my mix.
BTW, did you know that mixes like this with real cocoa are an awesome source of dietary fiber? Hey, it's sexy to be regular...
Jenn - "Hey, it's sexy to be regular ..." made me laugh OUT LOUD. You're right about the 1:1:1. Holy crap. Why are there Soooo many recipes on the stupid, big, fat liar of an Internet stating differently. I didn't find a SINGLE recipe that called for that ratio. I had to figure it out for myself. You're also right about the salt. You should probably add a dash to the mix! ~ karen
Ah, my friend, you didn't have this book!
Hot Chocolate: 50 Heavenly Cups of Comfort
Fred Thompson
I bought it for my brother a few years ago and, well, sorry Charlie: I kept it. It's got the best marshmallow recipe, too! Nom nom nom. That's where I first saw the 1:1:1 ratio.
p.s. Glad you liked the regular comment. Since I track my every calorie I discovered that suddenly my fiber intake had dramatically increased. Who knew that hot chocolate was time-honored cure for the German disease of farfrumpoopin?
Jenn, you are hilarious!!!! Which made me curious (nosy) so I headed over to your blog. So cool what you are doing. I will be adding you to my reader.