INGREDIENTS

• 450 ml. milk;
• 70 g. dark chocolate (70%);
• 30 g. of milk chocolate;
• 75 ml. cream (33%);
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon;
• a pinch of salt.

METHOD

First, heat 150 ml. of milk, remove it from the heat and prepare the chocolate ganache by adding chocolate pieces to the milk and melting them while stirring. Pour the remaining milk and cream into the saucepan, then add the cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Heat the drink, but never boil it. Hot chocolate is ready.

INFO

1. The basis of the recipe is chocolate, so the final taste of the drink depends on its choice. Everything is simple here: choose a quality bar with a cocoa content of at least 70%. Some sources recommend brewing a drink only from such chocolate and serving it in small portions, like espresso, but we understand that not everyone is able to appreciate the pronounced bitterness of dark chocolate. To sweeten the drink, you can simply add a little sugar, but it is better to mix the base dark chocolate with milk chocolate: let the first make up 70% of the drink, and the second, respectively, the remaining 30%. If you are making chocolate for children, the proportion will probably need to be changed to equal to make the chocolate sweeter.
2. Milk or cream. Here, as with chocolate, it is better to mix both. The main thing, again, is to determine the correct proportion. Cream is added to chocolate in order to make the texture of the drink more creamy and silky, but adding it in large quantities means turning hot chocolate from a drink into a dessert, and an indecently fatty dessert. That is why heavy cream in the recipe takes up less than a quarter of the total volume of milk.
3. Speaking of hot chocolate, we should not forget about a variety of additives, the most popular of which are "sweet" spices - cinnamon and vanilla. You can add spices to ready-made chocolate, or you can warm milk with a cinnamon stick or vanilla pod before adding chocolate. Slightly less popular are nutmeg, which is sprinkled on top of chocolate, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Be sure to add a small pinch of salt to the finished chocolate in order to emphasize the sweetness of the drink.

A variety of liqueurs and strong alcohol are also welcome in the recipe in small quantities.