European-Style Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate is practically religion in my family. When my brother and I were kids, every Christmas Eve my family and I would put on our pajamas, queue up the Muppet Christmas Carol, exchange ornaments, and sip hot chocolate. By the end of the movie nearly everyone was asleep, our stomachs full of warm chocolatey goodness. In the 90s that hot chocolate was reliably Swiss Miss powder— sometimes with the mini marshmallows in.the.packet. My ten-year-old mind was blown by this genius invention.
Sometime in that decade I started learning French, and my brother studied abroad, which converged into a Great Family European Vacation, where I navigated us through the hallowed halls of Angelina in Paris with my rudimentary 12-year-old French and a literal jaw-dropping sense of wonderment that was clearly not shared by the Parisians around us. I couldn’t stop staring at everything. Naturally, their famous hot chocolate was beyond my wildest dreams. The Swiss Miss was suddenly not going to cut it anymore. My mother, bless her, tried to find something comparable in the states, but alas there was no such thing at the time.
Every time I’ve gone back to Paris since, I’ve brought back an obscene amount of their hot chocolate mix. Seriously, my bags were once searched at JFK because the customs officer couldn’t believe anyone would bring back that much hot cocoa…to which I responded, sir, it’s hot chocolate, there’s a difference. My husband had to stealthily kick me to shut me up before I started explaining ganache to the entire customs crew.
Because that’s what makes European hot chocolate so much richer…it’s actually made with chocolate, rather than cocoa powder. Ganache is chocolate emulsified into dairy, and it makes the best hot chocolate. Makes sense, right?
The best part is not only is ganache hot chocolate richer, more decadent, and more complex, it’s actually easier to make.
This is wholly blasphemous (I am still American, after all), but I do this whole shebang in the microwave. There was a time when my husband and I would celebrate the start of the Christmas season with our best friends by making cookies, ordering Szechuan food and washing it down with a ganache hot chocolate made lovingly with milk heated to the perfect temperature in a very-much-not-dishwasher-safe saucepan, poured over hand-chopped chocolate in an elegant carafe and stirred to perfection.
Now? We have 3 kids under 5 between the four of us, so you best believe that hot chocolate is getting microwaved in a Pyrex measuring cup, chips and milk all mixed together and stirred with whatever spoon, fork, or whisk is closest, then wiped off tiny face and hands and pretty much every other surface as it’s devoured.
But you know what, it still tastes delicious, and everyone is filled with holiday cheer. Perfect.
If you can find good chocolate chips, like Guittard, it’ll help, but I’ve 100% made this with Tollhouse or Trader Joe’s and it’s been just fine indeed.
Recipe
Yield: 2 8-oz servings or 4 4-oz servings
Ingredients
1 cup (170g) chopped dark chocolate or dark chocolate chips
½ cup (75g) chopped milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips
1 ¼ cup (10 fl oz) whole milk
¼ tsp salt
Flaky sea salt such as Maldon for sprinkling, if desired
Marshmallows, crushed candy canes, or whipped cream for topping, if desired
Directions
If your goal is to do this in one measuring cup, add the milk first, then the chips so you’ll end up at 2 cups total. Then add the salt. This just makes it easier to measure, but there’s no magic to it. Do what works for you.
Microwave the mixture in 30-second increments until the chocolate is 90% melted, then let it sit for 2-3 minutes and whisk until the chocolate is fully incorporated.
Divide amongst your mugs and top with desired toppings. I highly recommend the extra sprinkle of salt.
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