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Hot chocolate: 5 mistakes not to make
Hot chocolate: 5 mistakes not to make

Video: Hot chocolate: 5 mistakes not to make

Video: Hot chocolate: 5 mistakes not to make
Video: How to Make The Best Hot Chocolate Of All Time (4 ways) 2024, March
Anonim

From time to time we feel the need to give in to temptation, to comfort ourselves with a sweet. It seems a weakness but it is not certain, in certain conditions it could be an extra gear.

This is the hypothesis that suggests a study by the University of Los Angeles published online in the scientific journal Appetite.

Researchers noted that stress from critical situations is lower in people who have allowed themselves to be tempted by comfort food.

Having seen the assist, sorry if I take a grim opportunity to invite you to prepare one delicious hot chocolate. Wanting spicy or enriched with cream and chocolate curls, otherwise smooth and with a drop of liqueur, but always very good.

Able to invigorate your soul and cold fingertips. Provided, as usual, you don't make these 5 mistakes.

1. USE THE BAGS

hot chocolate
hot chocolate

Courage, do not justify your laziness with inadmissible excuses. Do not tell yourself that the semi-prepared chocolate in a bag, soluble in water or milk, is less fat because it lacks the cocoa butter present in the other, the one obtained by melting the chocolate in a bar.

Who are you kidding, sorry? If anything, try to convince yourself by using other arguments, I don't know, the pre-dosage of the sachets, the practicality.

Here we are talking about the placebo effect, the comforting warming up from the winter stiffness and satisfying the palate at the same time. With a marked, intense, strong flavor of a thick chocolate cup prepared with a mix of artisan bars to be sipped at breakfast or as a snack, or as a robust alternative to tea on colder days.

Doesn't it seem to you that this is the only hot chocolate to have the right of citizenship here with us?

2. USE THE WRONG CHOCOLATE

chocolate in the cup, added chocolate
chocolate in the cup, added chocolate

The first and not insignificant advantage of a dark chocolate bar that contains 70% cocoa is the relatively low sugar content, because the higher the percentage of cocoa, the lower the sugar content.

While this doesn't automatically mean an aromatic, less sugary flavor, it often does.

Furthermore, a dark chocolate with 70% cocoa is an almost unsurpassed combination of flavors, with a fuller taste than bars with a higher cocoa percentage, all too pungent and penetrating.

3. PUT THE EGGS

hot chocolate, mix
hot chocolate, mix

The idea of using egg yolk as a natural thickener for hot chocolate is misleading.

Why add the 150 plus calories that an egg has to a drink that is certainly not low in calories?

And then there are other ways to make domestic hot chocolate as thick as those (few actually given the increase in lazy bartenders or unwilling to take care of this preparation) that they do at the bar.

4. DO NOT MELT THE CHOCOLATE IN A THIRD OF HOT MILK

ready-made hot chocolate
ready-made hot chocolate

Presenting it as an error is perhaps a bit risky. It is a trick inherited from the constant and admired consultation of the recipes of David Lebovitz, chef, pastry chef and starblogger.

Just heat a third of the milk together with all the chopped chocolate with a knife, stirring until it melts. Then pour the mixture into the remaining milk, beat and heat everything.

What does this flapping deliver us (it should be written) further than the other recipes? A combination of chopped chocolate, cocoa powder and the rest of the other ingredients finally without lumps, creamy yes, but with a smooth and silky effect. Which will increase thanks to another warning.

5. DO NOT USE THE MINIPIMER

hot chocolate, blender
hot chocolate, blender

It is up to you to decide, in a moment of pure joy or black depression, whether to use only whole milk or replace part of it with fresh cream (in a percentage ranging from 35% to 50%).

But to obtain a perfectly bonded drink it is important to heat milk and cream until it boils, then pour the mixture over the dark chocolate, emulsifying with the blender. And finally put it back on the fire.

CHOCOLATE RECIPE IN A CUP

Usually it is meant for two people but if you are very greedy …

45 gr dark chocolate (I use 20 gr of 70% dark chocolate and 25 gr 75%)

20 gr unsweetened cocoa

25 gr brown sugar

250 cl of whole milk (if you want, you can replace up to half with fresh cream)

10 cl rum (optional)

10 gr cornstarch (optional)

a pinch of salt

To further flavor, if you like, cinnamon and star anise are good, even chilli.

Break up the chocolate with a knife and mix it with cocoa, brown sugar and salt (starch, if you like).

Meanwhile, remember to slightly heat a third of the milk in a saucepan, and pour it over the chocolate-based mixture.

With the blender mix everything and return to low heat.

Check (with undisguised satisfaction) the absence of lumps.

Add the remaining milk, raise the heat a little and let it thicken until it reaches the consistency you want, I like it pretty thick.

If you like it you can perfume with cinnamon or other spices, add them to the milk in the second step (if it is the cinnamon stick), or towards the end of the preparation.

Rum should also be added at the end, for those who like it.

hot chocolate
hot chocolate

Compact and steaming: here is your hot chocolate.

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