Serious Eats Gift Guide: Hot Chocolate
Save the frilly boxes of candy for Valentine's Day. And hold off on the chocolate-of-the-month club until your best friend gets married. This time of year, people need simple, warm gifts that will sustain them through the winter—like hot chocolate, or the tools to make good hot chocolate.
Despite what certain retailers may tell you, hot chocolate is not hard to make. It does not require overcomplicated kettles or overpriced gadgets. You can make extraordinary hot chocolate with just two ingredients: chocolate and milk. To avoid disaster, keep the heat low. To enhance the flavors, allow the hot chocolate to sit for several minutes, hours, or even days (after an hour, refrigerate it).
After the jump, the Serious Eats Hot Chocolate Gift Guide. Prices do not include shipping unless otherwise noted.
Michel Cluizel Couverture Minigrammes
These haute chocolate chips (which trace their origins back to plantations on the islands of Sao Tome, Madagascar, and the Dominican Republic) are easier to work with than the large blocks of chocolate used for baking. You can dump them right into the pot without having to chop, shave, or grate them first. Michel Cluizel Couverture Minigrammes 1 kilo, $31-$37.95 (scroll to the bottom of the page)
Wusthof Classic Bread (And Chocolate) Knife
On the other hand, if you decide to tackle a large hunk of chocolate, I recommend doing so with a hefty serrated knife, like a bread knife. It produces finer shavings shavings than a straight-edged chef's knife and it's more efficient than a fancy hand-held grater. I use a forged-steel Wusthof model that I picked up at the Broadway Panhandler. Wusthof Classic Bread Knife, $59.95-$79.95
A Mexican Molinillo
A whisk can do the same job, but this carved wooden stirring tool commonly found in the Mexican chocolate capital of Oaxaca is far more glamorous. Contrary to the testimony of many a salesman (and many a reputable cookbook author), molinillos are not indigenous to the New World—they were introduced by the Spaniards. Mexican Molinillo, $4.95
Ceylon Cinnamon
Most cinnamon sold in the West is really a rough, bitter impostor called "cassia." True cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka (colonially and colloquially known as Ceylon), and the mild, almost citrusy taste seeps into a pot of hot chocolate with no effort at all. Ceylon Cinnamon, $3.69-$29.30
Jacques Torres's Wicked Hot and Chocolat Moderne's Kama Sutra
The only justification for using a chocolatier's prepackaged hot chocolate mix instead of whipping up your own is a mystical combination of flavors that—try as you may—you simply can't replicate. Jacques Torres performs some kind of alchemy with ancho and chipotle chiles in his Wicked Hot Chocolate. And Joan Coukos of Chocolat Moderne blends coconut, cardomom, and clove in an incomprehensible way in her Kama Sutra Hot Chocolate. Wicked Hot Chocolate, $18; Kama Sutra Hot Chocolate, $18
Recchiuti Marshmallows
You could buy Michael Recchiuti's hot chocolate mix, too—or you could save the money and skip ahead to his Madagascar-vanilla-infused homemade marshmallows. Recchiuti Marshmallows, 24 count, $20
View other entries from Serious Chocolate.
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2 Comments:
I made homemade marshmallows this year - they were a HIT!
I used Alton Brown's recipe.
lo82070 at 12:47PM on 12/12/07
You know, I thought I was being so creative and unique with my plan to give all my friends and coworkers a gift basket containing homemade hot cocoa mix in a jar and homemade marshmallows, but being that I keep seeing this sort of thing around, I'm especially glad that I kicked my gifts up a notch with my own special addition - a collection of single-cup-portion flavorings for the cocoa, made/mixed from extracts and liquors ;)
erichan726 at 3:46PM on 12/12/07