Photo from the Givers Log |
Givers Log has an incredibly beautiful post about hot chocolate on a stick. I love hot chocolate and on these cold dark winter days, a warm cup is a blessing. Benjamin Franklin said: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." I think he is wrong. Chocolate is proof that God loves us. Anyway, the Giver's Log's basic recipe has 4 ingredients. I can make that. At least I thought I could.
We had all the ingredients in the house and I had the bright idea to use candy canes for the sticks. Except, when I unwrapped them, I found out that lots were broken. I didn't want to go buy Popsicle sticks so I decided to use some leftover plastic spoons. I thought putting marshmallows on the ends would be cool. When I pushed the marshmallow through it left white sticky stuff all over the spoon handle. I ended up cutting them and squishing them around the handle that way. I must have still had some cocoa powder on my hands because some of them look pretty grubby.
The Farmer and I melted the chocolate over a double boiler without difficulty. I sifted in the powdered sugar and coco powder and the stuff stiffened up and got really dry. We stirred and stirred; which was really hard because it was so thick. Finally, we added more chocolate and a little oil to get it to the right consistency.
On the Giver's Log she spent a lot of time talking about quality chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa butter. Now I know why. Wegman's semi sweet chips apparently are not up to snuff.
We put it into the bag and when I squeezed it to get it to pipe into the ice cube tray, the bag broke. Getting it into the tray at all neatly was a challenge. The bag broke two more times. Eventually, we got it in there and shoved the spoons and canes in. We made a terrific mess.
It looks a little better coming out of the ice cube tray, but not much. The candy canes broke even more, so they were pretty much a total bust.
And yet, who care what it looks like? What really matters here is how it tastes. After a long wait for the kettle whistle, we plunked them on out mugs. They don't melt quickly or smoothly. We let them sit for about 5 minutes and then stirred. A lot. I added some half and half to make it creamy. It looked better with mini marshmallows on top. The kid apparently got a hold of the bag while I was not looking and topped hers off. It is good cocoa. The best ever? I don't think so. But it is better than the stuff that comes out of little white envelopes.
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