Hot chocolate mix

Happy New Year, everyone!

The first post of the new year is another new item added to the menu:  hot chocolate mix.

When you order this, you will have enough to make about 7 cups of hot chocolate.

I've been tweaking this for quite a while to get it just the way I want it.  

Two different kinds of ground and chopped chocolate, a premium cocoa powder, some carefully chosen spices -- it's a great mix.  Just add 1/4 cup of this mix to a cup of milk in a saucepan.  Heat it up on medium heat until it's quite hot, but not boiling.  Whisk it once in a while to help it combine as the chocolate melts.  There you have it. 

Notice that I said, "but not boiling".  You can boil this if you wish.  But if you boil it, a skin will form on the surface of the hot chocolate, especially after it begins to cool.  Anytime anyone heats milk, the hotter it gets, the more it affects the milk.  Among other things that happens, proteins will separate and coagulate, and this forms the skin.  It's perfectly edible, perfectly drinkable, but you may not want the skin.  I don't. 

So when I'm heating up this mix with milk, I let it heat slowly on medium heat.  I like to take it to where it's just steaming a bit, maybe a little hotter, just at the scalding point which is 181 F.  You don't need to get out a thermometer to measure the temperature, though.  Just heat it up as much as you want.  

It's all good.