The Best Hot Chocolate You’ll Ever Taste

Maybe.  In fact, that is very obnoxious of me to suggest – and probably not even true.  If you’ve ever been (or will be) to O’Conaill’s Chocolate Shop on French Church Street in Cork, Ireland, then it is most certainly not true.  Their signature hot chocolate is better than mine.  I guess that goes without saying.

Allow me to start again.  This is a very decent hot chocolate recipe, that I came up with myself and that you will definitely not hate.  There!  The recipe was actually intended as a recreation of the O’Conaill’s one I was craving in the run up to Christmas, while I was still in Abu Dhabi and thousands of miles away from that kind of perfection. 

Here’s the recipe.  It’s for those of you who, like me, think of hot chocolate as more dessert than drink… though I’m sure you could lower the chocolate: milk ratio and that would work too.

Hot Chocolate (makes 2 standard sized mugs)

What you’ll need:

Semi-skimmed milk (Use the mugs to measure – 2 almost-full mugs)

35-40g good quality dark chocolate (70%+)

35-40g good quality white chocolate

35 –40g Lindt Excellence Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate (this exact one)

A good pinch of Maldon salt

Here’s how:

• Cut the chocolate into smallish chunks
• Warm the milk in a small saucepan over a medium heat. As the milk starts to heats up, add the chocolate and start whisking until all the chocolate is melted.  Don’t allow the milk to boil – you want lots of steam but no bubbles. 
• Add the salt and whisk one last time before pouring into the mugs to serve
• Jamie Oliver has this trick for hot chocolate that I sometimes do, but sometimes don’t bother with.  Right before serving, you pour the mixture into a large flask, ensuring there is lots of space at the top.  Screw on the lid and shake it (like you would with a cocktail shaker) for a couple of minutes.  This makes the milk nice and frothy.  Include that step too, if you’re really trying to impress.