Instant Chocolate Milk?

OK, people, it is officially HOT, here in Glasgow. Right this moment it’s 25°C / 77°F. That’s as close to the peak for what we get here as to be totally unbearable. We’ve got the windows open, went out to the market and bought a couple of wee watermelons, and are wondering whether we could get by for dinner on watermelon and instant chocolate milk. If only we knew how to make the stuff.

I’ve managed to track down Alton’s Recipe for hot chocolate mix, but … is it the same, really? Will it survive being both for sweetness (the quantities there look wrong) and to make cold chocolate? We’ll see.

Instant Hot Chocolate Mix:

• 1.5 cups powdered milk (go with soy, if you can find it)
• 1.5 cups powdered or confectioner’s sugar
• 2 cups cocoa powder (natural process)
• 2 tsp cornstarch (to thicken & stabilize)
• Pinch salt (finer salt like popcorn or even pickling salt; i.e. not kosher salt)
• a little cayenne pepper
• a little ground cinnamon (1 1-inch stick)
• a little ground nutmeg (1/8 of a nut)
• a little ground allspice (6 berries)
• 2 tsp Ground Ginger
• a little ground cloves (6 whole cloves, ground)
• a little ground cardamom (seeds from 6 pods, ground)
• guts of 1 vanilla pod, ground up with the rest of the spices

1. Mix it all together
2. Seal it up somewhere safe

When ready to use:

1. Mix a little into a paste
2. Add hot (or ice cold) water, until it’s the consistency of melted chocolate.
3. Drink.

We’ll see how it goes, but that’s the general recipe, adjusted to get rid of the majority of the milkiness and sickening sweetness of most mixes. We’re going more for the hot chocolates we had in Northern Italy: something resembling a dark chocolate bar, melted, in a small cup.

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