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Hot cocoa has its place in the world, but thick hot chocolate, thick drinking chocolate, that belongs on your unforgettable list! A secret ingredient creates the luscious texture of this special and unique hot chocolate.
There are certain things we have eaten in their very finest forms that stay with us, that won’t leave us alone until we eat them again. My list of such finery does not include chicken wings, devotees of which seem to be abounding this week in preparation for the Super Bowl. I admit that I did eat some memorable wings once in Phoenix with cousin Jim that I’m sure he remembers too; we asked the waiter to list all ingredients. My finest forms list does include a particular brownie that I myself made once and have never been able to replicate, even using the same recipe (think deep, dark, chewy). Also: toffee worth its weight in gold from Mason, Michigan (Uncle Dick gave us a precious box at Christmas, and mark my words that I will figure out how to make it before next December).
Topping the list—and I get that it seems like they’re all sweets, because they are—is the hot chocolate I had when I was traveling in Spain in 1998. Time and distance has made the heart grow fonder of that chocolate; it was far too good to be out of sight, out of mind.
It was there, in Catalonia, where I had an epiphany with a white peach, and where, that same night, I was wise or desperate enough to order hot chocolate at a café in the town square around the corner from our retreat-house digs. My white peach epiphany, while inspiring, did not qualify as dessert. I can’t help wonder, what if I had ordered something else instead that night, a glass of cava or, God forbid my usual, a mug of hot water with honey? I’d remain ignorant of that hot chocolate today, and would have been robbed of my multi-year quest. My sister has heard me lament the hot chocolate as though stars had aligned and I found the love of my life in Spain, kissed him and pledged my heart to him, only to never see him again.
I’ve clipped many a newspaper recipe, and now pinned many a potential hot chocolate online, but none has met the bar. Peg gave me a tremendous box (it’s heavy board, and deep regal purple, and you feel special holding it) of Vosges hot chocolate for my birthday one year. Just add hot cream, and you have drinking chocolate of a high order. Same holds true for the tin of chocolate she bought me at Harrod’s in London—ok, yes, it was at Heathrow on the layover home from Beirut, but still London. While both of these taste special, they don’t have the texture of the chocolate I had in Spain, and the heavy cream that their flavor seems dependent upon is so rich it meant I can only drink a sip once a year.
No, the chocolate I’d fallen for was almost like pudding, with the luscious mouth-feel of almost-pudding and the serious chocolate flavor of pots de crème, but still very much a drink; I’ve said it again and again. When the children in the family told me about the churros and chocolate they had in Argentina, I was certain it was the same hot chocolate I had in Spain, but they hadn’t exactly run around trying to find out how their hot chocolate had been made. My queries have been met with all sorts of suggestions for making the chocolate, from stir it nonstop to use heavy cream to the naysayers’ give it up.
Clearly I have scoured my every resource in search of the memorable hot chocolate. Which is why it is so embarrassing to say that a not-so-deep delving online produced the answer to my thick hot chocolate dreams. It’s a silly answer, one I should have come up with on my own, and one you may slam shut your lap-top over while laughing with (never at?) me. Before you do, I ask you to try it, taste and see, and then you can slam away. But you won’t want to. What you’ll want is to curl up with a cup and a book, or call up a friend, make this hot chocolate, pour it into some small cups, and sip away. What I did upon discovery of my hot chocolate was neither of those; I just stood at the kitchen sink, sipping and watching the snow fall on the big old oak on the side of the house in quiet triumph.
Thick Hot Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk (whole or 2%; if using skim, increase the cornstarch by 1 teaspoon)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 2 oz. high quality dark chocolate, 60-70% cacao, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a small sauce pan, dissolve the cornstarch in the milk. Add the cinnamon stick and bring the milk just to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Reduce heat to low and add the chocolate, continuing to stir until the chocolate is melted and the liquid is slightly thickened (it will lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon).
- If the hot chocolate doesn’t thicken, add a slurry of cornstarch and milk (dissolve ¼ teaspoon of cornstarch in a tablespoon of cold milk) to the hot chocolate and continue stirring over medium high heat until slightly thickened. Discard the cinnamon stick and pour into little cups. Serve immediately.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You mean THAT’S how the divine-looking hot chocolate that Viane made in the movie “Chocolat” was probably made??? With corn starch?? Can’t wait to try! I’ve been trying to make a thick, dark, rich hot chocolate for twenty years… Thank you!!! ☕
Oh yes!! Enjoy!!
Muchisimas gracias, Maureen. So, very, and I mean very, soon this sunshine-starved southern man, slow from his shivering, dark hibernation of many months, will shuffle toward his pantry and his cooking space, and with sweet anticipation brighten the low flame, almost flickered out, with the priceless, lyric wisdom of a western, eastern princess-sage.
Cold, blustery snow storm coming in–I am making this tomorrow a.m. — I now have all the ingredients–love cinnamon sticks–haven’t had any in my cupboard for years and years.
next time ur in cambridge,ma , try l a burdick for hot chocolate, the dark version.
Maureen, I’m a Spaniard [first generation American] and my father’s favorite food was churros y chocolate. My experience in Spain is that it is almost too thick to drink but great to dunk churros. You come out with the crisp churro covered in chocolate. Yum.
Cousin Maureen,
your post and recipe have reached me on a morning when I look out my window and feel like I’m inside a snow-globe. It’s cold, blustery and oh-so-snowy out there. Inside my desk drawer remains one-quarter of a bar of Green & Black’s Maya Gold (55% dark choc)…now I’ve printed off your recipe and will take it home. If my boys are lucky, I will share a cup of cocoa with them later today…thank you for the perfect mid-winter gift. (Now, back to work!)
Thank you Maureen! I went to Spain in high school with my Spanish class, and was introduced to “chocolate con churros,” definitely one of the culinary highlights of the trip. Perfect thing to make, now that the truly cold temps have hit us in Illinois!
One serious problem with this recipe: I am at work and want to be at home making it.