Milk Frothing Made Easy

Just added the Breville Electric Milk Frother to my birthday and holiday wish list.  This little stainless steel beauty stirs and froths milk while using induction heating. Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean, the Breville Frother eliminates the need to use a double-boiler or microwave to heat milk for hot chocolate creations or Vanilla Steamers.  Exclusive to Williams-Sonoma.com, the frother retails for $160.00.

It looks real...

OK. So I have a slight obsession with kitchen gadgets this week. But this expense was justified! The other half broke my travel mug and as everyone knows I must have my hot chocolate on the run.

I picked up this faux disposable mug at Bed, Bath and Beyond. The Copco To Go Cup is reusable, BPA free and is double walled for enhanced insulation. Best of all, it is dishwasher and microwave safe. It costs $7.99, but you can get it for less with that 20% coupon Bed, Bath and Beyond sends out each week.

It's all in the measurements

The other half accidently broke my ounce measuring cup a few weeks back. Trying to convert cup measurements to ounces makes me crazy, so a shopping excursion was in order to replace the broken measuring cup.

After a trip to Crate and Barrel, I came home with two new toys: Adjust-a-Cup and Mini Measure. I can't wait to use these new gadgets this weekend on a new hot chocolate recipe.

My New Toy

Over the weekend, I decided I needed a new gadget to simplify my homemade hot chocolate making experience. My current double boiler is nice, but I was itching to spend money I didn’t have.

After doing a little research online at my favorite specialty kitchenware stores, I found exactly what I was looking for and prepared myself for a mini shopping excursion. Tada! I purchased a BonJour All-In-One Double Boiler. This easy to use stainless steel double boiler comes with a small black funnel to add water to the unit’s reservoir. After washing the unit, I used the funnel to fill the boiler’s reservoir with water. Once filled with water, I placed the unit on my stove, turned the burner on and I was off to the hot chocolate races.

To christen my new double boiler, I decided to make chocolate ice cream using a dark hot chocolate mix. (I will go into more depth on that comedy of errors on a later post.) Nonetheless, I was pleased with the unit’s performance. I didn’t have to worry about water boiling over on to the stove’s flames, and it was easy to wash and store. Most importantly, I didn’t have to worry about scorching my chocolate shavings.

With a traditional double boiler, you must make sure the water level is just below the base. The steam from the hot water melts the chocolate, but if you have the water too high it will engulf the boiler’s base and the extremely hot water may burn your chocolate.

This gadget would definitely get a lot of use by my friends at the Foodie Blog Roll! My only recommendation for the next generation double boiler is to add a lip for simplified pouring. (Hint, hint… BonJour if you get this post via an alert or rss feed :})