Exotic Hot Chocolate Ingredients

I am back in California so you know what that means!!!! A trip to Surfas…this shopping trip I came away with Cinnamon & Orange Sugar, Black Onyx Cocoa Powder (Dutch-processed), Palm Sugar from Thailand, and Lake Champlain’s Organic Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (Dutched processed).

My mother surprised me with her own hot chocolate/hot cocoa ingredient shopping trip. When I arrived back home, my mother purchased actual Crillo and Forestero cocoa nibs along with beans from the Madagascar and Mexican Tabasco region.

Furthermore, I received organic powders to create our own exotic hot chocolate mixes including Goji Berry Powder, Butterscotch, Amaretto, Cheesecake, Green Papaya and a few more but I cannot remember their names. Also, mommie got Bavarian Cream, Apple and Black Raspberry extracts to truly enhance our homemade hot chocolate day. We are going to have hella-fun creating hot chocolates and cocoas with these wicked ingredients…

It’s about time…a cocoa machine

It’s been a busy holiday season and the hot chocolate business has been going well. Now, I found a new fixation…the Back-To-Basics Cocoa Latte Machine. Everywhere you look, another blasted coffee machine comes to the market.

Finally, Back-To-Basics delivers a machine just for us hot chocolate aficionados. Simply add your powdered hot chocolate mix along with milk or water to the Cocoa Latte Machine. Press the froth button and the machine mixes all of the ingredients together and even heats everything up! When you are ready for a cup, just put your mug under the spout and pour away.

The best attribute about this machine is that when the hot chocolate is no longer at the optimum temperature, the machine heats it up until it is drink/hot ready. Absolutely perfect! What’s even better…no skim. I hate skim on top of my hot chocolate, but I didn’t have that experience with the Cocoa Latte Machine.

Hot Chocolate Souffle

After returning home from the Thanksgiving holiday. I was off to Austin, Texas for a short meeting. Our department dinner was at Roy's Restaurant. Although I should be looking for a main dinner course. I zoned in on the Hot Chocolate Souffle. Forget dinner, give me the souffle! As usual and in typical Texas style, I order a wonderful steak. Just enough for dinner, but leaves room for dessert.

Roy's Hot Chocolate Souffle was absolutely divine! It was thick with a vicious chocolate punch. Some of my co-workers were sharing their desserts...but not I. Touch my Hot Chocolate Souffle at your own risk!

The good news is that their is a Roy's back home in California so you know where I will be going this Christmas.

Addicted to Mocafe Aztec D'Oro

A trip to California wouldn’t be the same without checking out a new hot chocolate while visiting the family. Grocery shopping isn’t the same without a quick breeze down the hot chocolate isle of any supermarket. While at Bristol Farms Market in El Segundo, I came across MoCafe’s Aztec D’Oro 1519. I’ve seen it in print but never on the supermarket shelves in Texas. So, I picked up a can asked my mom to make the family some Thanksgiving hot chocolate. I even convinced my dad, a die-hard coffee drinker, to indulge with me.

Low and behold, I created a monster. My father simply enjoys this mix. I was very impressed with the texture and scent of this Aztec brew. The ingredients of this hot chocolate are as follows: Pure Hawaiian cane sugar, premium Forestero cocoa, ground chocolate (sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin emulsifier, and pure vanilla), spices, all natural flavors and salt.

Reluctantly, I left the can behind for my father. My mom just called me on Tuesday to say my dad had three cups of this hot chocolate and asked where I got it. Off to Pasadena, California my mother will go to stock up on this hot chocolate. At the rate my father is going, we better buy it in bulk. I’ve turned another coffee drinker away from the dark side!

Cacao Can Save the World!

On the way into work pass Monday, I caught a portion of the NPR segment on cacao farming in Brazil called “How Chocolate Can Save the World” by Joanne Silberner.

Well I knew cacao can save the world in heart, body and soul. However, numerous people and now environmentalists are highlighting the benefits of growing the cacao tree in parts of Brazil that previous gave up on growing the tree.

Take a listen to “How Chocolate Can Save the World”

danesidancioc

Husband out of town. House semi clean and a chill is in the air. Okay…this is Texas. Any time I am not running the AC is wonderful weather and it is the perfect time to try one of my new hot chocolates from my Surfas' shopping trip last month. On Friday night, it was danesidancioc night.

Since I cannot read a lick of Italian, I must wing it when it comes to creating a cup of hot chocolate. I opted to use 6 ounces of 1% milk and 1 tablespoon of danesidancioc. The chocolate has brownish, grey color with small pearly white sugar crystal peeking out from the cocoa goodness. Simply from the 1st glance, the danesidancioc hot chocolate mix is going to be just as I like it (not very sugary, very flavorful).

Since I’m in a hurry to indulge, I opted to use the microwave. I heated all 6 ounces of milk for 60 seconds. Added the tablespoon of hot chocolate mix and blended it with the milk. After heating the mixture again for another 35 seconds, I was preparing to enter heaven.

At the last minute, I opted to pull out two Sydney’s Cinnamon Plush Puffs. Personally, I enjoy my hot chocolate without marshmallows. However, tonight I was feeling adventurous.

I sipped half the hot chocolate without marshmallows and I experienced a tidal wave of scrumptious hot chocolate. Nice texture, wonderful scent and excellent taste. Once I reached about the 3 ounce mark, I dropped in the two cinnamon marshmallows. The cinnamon spice from the mallows intensified the hot chocolate and added a new level of taste.

Hot Chocolate vs. Hot Apple Cider

I just came across this adorable video of a little girl doing a taste test of hot chocolate vs. hot apple cider at the ripe old age of 2 years old. She's definitely a Cocoa Connoisseur in the making!

"Hot Chocolate Taste Test"

Sassy Sugars

It is amazing how a sweetener can play such a vital role in a hot chocolate. On my last Surfas shopping trip, I also purchased a few different sugars to enhance my drinking chocolate experience: Muscavado, Demerara and Caster Sugar.

Muscavado is derived from cane sugar juice which gives it it’s a deep, dark color. Muscavado is stickier than traditional brown sugar and is commonly used in cookie recipes. Demerara Sugar looks like golden colored sugar crystals and is derived from Cane Sugar. Demerara is recommended for use as a crème brulee topping, desserts and as a crunchy confectionary topping. Also, referred to as “Turbinado” sugar, Demerara sugar is commonly used in Europe as a coffee sweetner. Caster Sugar is a fine sugar that dissolves quickly in liquid. It is excellent for ice teas and meringue desserts. I prefer to use Caster due to it’s fast dissolving characteristics and pleasant flavor.

In addition to Demerara, Muscavado and Caster Sugars, here are a few more to try in your next hot chocolate recipe:

Honey
Brown Sugar
Splenda – A sugar substitute
Anisette


Palm Sugar and Stevia are two other sweeteners I found, but have yet to try in a recipe.

Hot Chocolate Shopping Spree

During my last trip to California, I made my usual trip to Surfas Culinary store in Century City. Surfas is where I get all my ingredients to make my hot chocolate recipes. During this trip, I walked away with Anisette Sugar, Vosges la parisienne couture cocoa, Horlicks Original Do Not Disturb (not a hot chocolate) and danesi dancioc. Since I have yet to try any of these beverages, this should be quite interesting.

The Vosges la parisiene couture cocoa is ranked #2 on About.com’s “Top 10 Drinking Chocolate” list. As for the Horlicks Original Do Not Disturb, is a malted milk beverage from the UK. According to the jar, Horlicks is a sleep aid manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. With all of the drama in my life, I need something to calm my hyper self down at night. If this does the trick, I will definitely sing the praises of Horlicks. Lastly, danesi dancioc is from Rome, Italy. I do not know much about danesi dancioc. However, I have seen their adorable danesi caffe cups and saucers in a few stores.

Stay tuned for my tasting experience!

Michael Turback's Mocha

The Cocoa Lady is excited to announce a Cocoa Connoisseur recipe in Michael Turback’s newly released Mocha. As a new face in the chocolate industry, it is quite an honor to be selected to participate in this culinary opportunity. It was a wonderful experience working with Mr. Turback and I am delighted to be a part of his chocolate and coffee experience.

My 1st Frothing Experience

My husband is on a business trip and I have complete access to HIS coffee/cappuccino/espresso machine. Inspired by my Boston trip, I was determined to figure out how to use the frothing machine on his Krups. Initially, I thought…this shouldn’t be too hard? The bottom line, I ended up breaking out with the instructions on how to use that bad boy.

Since Frank drank up all the Milk before he left (which is like sacrilegious in our house), I had to use a small pint of whipping cream and a little water. I wasn’t in a heavy hot chocolate mood, but I needed my fix. Ta-dah. I am a frothing fool now!!!

The mix of the day is Colombian 53 Single Origin Drinking Chocolate by Allergo Coffee. I found this selection in Whole Foods a little while back. Since this is a single origin drinking chocolate, all of the cacao beans come from the same region. Many chocolate and hot chocolate manufacturers use beans from all over with different quality levels to make their final creations. Most of the time, the end result isn’t very good since the three to four types of cacao beans each have a different level of roasting and/or conching that needs to be done to achieve optimum flavor.

Now, Allergo uses 53% Colombian dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), Colombian cocoa powder, cane sugar. I pour my frothy milk into my ducky mug my sister Pam got me for Easter and added the Colombian 53 to the mix. Forget Calgon taking me away….it was Colombian 53 for me!

Back for Panera Hot Chocolate

With my business trip ending the next day, last Saturday was the last time I could seek out a good cup of hot chocolate. So, I went back to Panera. Time was tight but I needed a fix. Since I was eating breakfast at the restaurant I had my cup of power chocolate there.

Ohhh! What a good decision. Take a look at that picture. I was served another wonderful cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream this time. An extra added bonus was the syrup on top. Normally, I wish to enjoy my chocolate straight up. However, this was going to be a long day on the tradeshow floor so I needed all the chocolate I could get.

I have one word for this indulgence….FABULOUS!

Au Bon Pain Hot Chocolate

I learned my lesson from my September trip to Boston that the Au Bon Pain on State and Kirby is not open over the weekend. I was on a mission to try their hot chocolate before I returned to Texas. So, with great anticipation I was ready for a visit after my business meetings on Friday. I was very excited to try their hot chocolate due to an old article I read about Au Bon Pain’s hot chocolate trio called “Choco Bon Loco: A Crazy Chocolate Experience”. The recipe is a blend of three chocolates to form a European style drinking chocolate.

However, when I looked at the menu it simply listed “Hot Chocolate.” Huh? I placed my order and watched the Barista steam away 2% milk. To my disappointment, the recipe was overly sugary, yet thick. What happened to the Choco Bon Loco? My beverage wasn’t a drinking chocolate, but just as it stated on the menu, a “Hot Chocolate”. Maybe Au Bon Pain’s Choco Bon Loco fell to the way side like Starbuck’s Chantico?

Panera Hot Chocolate

After returning from a quick trip to Boston, I am exhausted. When I arrived on Thursday, the weather was quite crappy. It was misty and chilly. Perfect weather for a fire and hot chocolate. I made my way to the Panera Bread on Broad Street for dinner. You can always get a good meal at Panera, but I never had their hot chocolate before. So, for dessert I ordered a hot chocolate to go.

I noticed the Panera employee was using 2% milk which is better than skim. But I prefer the good old fat of WHOLE MILK!!! I forgot to ask what type of chocolate they used because I was brain fried from work. But I must say I enjoyed it. It was full-bodied and not overly sweet. I’ve always been a dark chocolate fan (searching for the Special Dark Chocolate in the Hershey’s Mix Bag) so it was nice that this wasn’t the typically sugary sweet hot chocolate.

This brew hit the spot as I walked back to the Hilton a few blocks away and enjoyed the rest of my hot chocolate in the comfort of my room.

Madagascar Vanilla & Hot Chocolate

Madagascar Vanilla & Hot Chocolate
For this last recipe, I decided to go down the drinking chocolate route using the last Vanilla of the Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Trio, Madagascar. This very thick drinking chocolate has 3/4 cup whole milk, 2 tbls Vanilla, 1 Cinnamon Stick, 1 Dylan's Candy Bar w/Nibs, 65% Cocoa, and 2 tbls Sugar.

To melt the chocolate bar, I used my trusty double boiler to avoid burning the chocolate and the milk. After the chocolate melted, I added my milk infused with the cinnamon stick and vanilla that was chillin' in the refrigerator. I blended the milk, chocolate and added the sugar to form a creamy mixture.

I served the boys this thick chocolately drink for them to try.... The verdict: Frank believes "it tastes just like a candy bar". Of course, I'm thinking. Micah enjoyed it, but it wasn't his favorite.

After a long day of creating hot chocolate the boys rated the hot chocolate made with Nielsen-Massey Vanilla as follows:
1. Mexican Vanilla Hot Chocolate
2. Madagascar Vanilla Hot Chocolate
3. Tahitian Vanilla Hot Chocolate

Y'all (opps that Texas influence) should try your own taste test.

Mexican Vanilla & Hot Chocolate

With my Nielsen-Massey Vanilla trio in hand, I am off to the hot chocolate races. First up, is the Mexican Vanilla. According to the Nielsen-Massey box, Mexican Vanilla is one of the best Vanillas for chocolate and cinnamon. This is perfect for my recipe! When I think of Mexico I think of fruity flavors…why… I don’t know but orange came to my head.

Nonetheless, the recipe I came up with was ¾ cup whole milk, 2 tsp Mexican Vanilla, 2 tbls Orange Juice, 1 Cinnamon stick, 1 tbls Sugar and 2 tbls of NoMU Cocoa Powder. The most important ingredient, of course, is the cocoa powder. The one selected for this brew is NoMU from Cape Town, South Africa. I found this bad boy on one of my many adventures back home to California. NoMU’s cocoa powder is Dutch Processed which means the cocoa was processed with an alkalizing agent (potassium carbonate) to remove the acidity from the cocoa.

In order to capture the true essence of the Vanilla, I decided to add the Vanilla and Cinnamon stick to the milk and let everything “marinate” in the ‘frig for a few hours.

A little while later, I added the rest of the ingredients to my double boiler, mixed it up and heated through. Since I can’t stand skim, I always heat my hot chocolate creations on a medium-low heat and stir consistently to avoid a skim appearance.

Since my husband’s friend Micah was visiting us, we had a hot chocolate and cocoa infused dessert festival. Micah thought the Mexican Hot Chocolate was “earthy and calming”. Also, he liked the after kick of the Orange Juice. Frank, my husband, enjoyed this one too, but he loves anything with chocolate.

Next up is the Tahitian Vanilla….

Nielsen-Massey Vanillas & Hot Chocolate

Vanilla is one of the most popular ingredients in hot chocolate. One of the perks of working at Williams-Sonoma was access to wonderful spices, ingredients and, of course, the employee discount.

One of my many purchases was a Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract sampler with three bottles of Vanilla from different regions of the world. It contains one 2 oz bottle of Mexican Vanilla Extract, Madagascar Vanilla Extract and Tahitian Vanilla Extract. Each bottle was very fragrant and I just know it has a delicious flavor. Now, I am ready to create some powerful hot chocolate recipes with this trio of taste.

Granita w/Anisette Sugar

My next frozen dessert adventure was with Chocolat Vital’s Cocoa Cardamom Tango Black Tea made with cinnamon, chocolate chips (sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa powder, emulsifier lecithin) cardamom, cardamom seeds and natural flavoring. With this fragrant tea, I know I have a winning recipe on hand to make Granita.

Granita or Granite is an iced Italian dessert. Since an ice cream maker isn’t necessary, the texture of the dessert is very coarse (look at my picture). To make this simple recipe, I brewed 2 cups of H20 with 1 tablespoon of tea and added ¾ cup of Anisette Sugar.

Unfortunately, Granite is not supposed to be very sweet, so I blew this recipe in theory. However, I think ½ cup sugar would be better since Anisette Sugar is very flavorful. To me, Anisette Sugar tastes like black licorice. Outside of this recipe or making an actual cup of hot chocolate, I wouldn’t touch this sugar but it added such a nice taste….

SerendipiTea ChocolaTea Sorbet

Now that I’ve recovered from a crashed hard drive and my recent work related travel, I am back on the blog! My frozen dessert rampage continues… This time I was busy creating a sorbet and granite with cocoa infused teas.

Sorbets are basically a frozen mixture of flavored ice usually enhanced with a fruit puree and sugar. A lot lighter than ice cream, sorbets are really great for those that are lactose intolerant since water is usually used vs. milk

After brewing up 3–½ cups of H20 with 3 tablespoons of serendipiTea’s ChocolaTea made with Chocolate, Vanilla, Rooibos and Black Tea, I added 1-½ cups of Demerara Sugar and ½ cup of cocoa nibs from Scharffen Berger. With the Ice Cream/Sorbet maker ready to go, I added the water mixture to the machine and hit the on button. Please make sure you let the tea get room temperature!!! What should have been an evening event turned into two days because I was too impatience to let the tea cool.

Twenty five minutes later, I had a yummy dessert. I must warn those not familiar with cocoa nibs they test nothing like chocolate chips (which is what they look like in the picture). These are definitely not sweet….they have a nutty robust flavor and are very crunchy. A cocoa nib is a roasted cacao bean separated from it’s shell and husk.

Normally, I am not a fan of cocoa nibs. But the contract of sweet and a little bitter was nice.

Making Chocolate Gelato

Inspired by an article I pulled out of Traditional Home called “Sassy Sorbet”, I decided to make some cocoa infused frozen desserts. My first attempt at a tasty frozen treat was to use my remaining white chocolate square with berries from Dylan’s Candy Bar. I grab my Trader Joe’s Organic Cocoa Powder made with criollo and trinitario cacao beans from Peru from the pantry along with the white chocolate, caster sugar and salt. Ohhh! This should be good!

I was off to the race. I used a recipe from the internet as a guide, but I added my own spin to the recipe. So, here is what I came up with…Chocolate Surprise Sorbet by Cocoa Connoisseur:

Ingredients:
1 ¼ c Caster Sugar (fine sugar)
3 1/3 c Water, Room Temperature
¼ c White Chocolate with Berries (from Dylan’s Candy Bar or something similar)
1 c Cocoa Powder
2 tsp Vanilla
Pinch Salt

Preparation:
Whisk together the Caster Sugar and Water in a bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add the Cocoa Powder, Vanilla and Salt to the sugar/water mixture until smooth.

Chop the White Chocolate with Berries into small pieces. Add the chopped White Chocolate chunks. Blend completely.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker’s freezer bowl. Follow your machine’s instruction book to start and operate the unit.


Personally, this stuff was delicious! My husband loved it so much he kept eating it. Then, the next day I come home from work and the sorbet is all gone!! What in the world…the man was claiming I was making him “fat” with these desserts.

If you ask me, that is a personal problem and he must have lost his mind throwing out a good batch of chocolate sorbet (I didn’t event get a picture of it yet). But in actuality, he was addicted and kept eating it. They say, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Well, I definitely won that battle!

Oh, back to the cacao beans. Both criollo and trinitario beans are grown in tropical regions within the latitudes of 20° South and 20° North of the equator. The temperature must consistently be between 70° to 77° F for the beans to flourish. Only about 1% of criollo and 14% of the trinitario are used to make chocolate. Both beans are quite flavorful, but unfortunately, they are not used in most of the chocolate we eat today (especially here in the USA). As for criollo beans, most of the beans produced are a criollo/trinitario hybrid with 2% to 5% cacao producing trees available. So, if you’re a label readier, look for criollo and trinitario for the best beans!

White Hot Chocolate?

After an early morning trip to the Houston Galleria, I stopped by one of my favorite stores...Dylan's Candy Bar. Instantly, I turn into a kid again. It was all about Fun Dip, Everlasting Gobstoppers and any other candy made by Willy Wonka. But of course, I don't stray too far from finding goodies to make hot chocolate.

I came across some squares of white chocolate mixed with dried fruit. I am not a fan of white chocolate because it really isn't chocolate. White chocolate is made with sugar, cocoa butter and milk. There isn't an ounce of chocolate liquor or cocoa solids/mass in it. So, why they call it "chocolate" is beyond me?

Nonetheless, when I got home I set up the double boiler and started up chopping up one square of the white chocolate. I added one cup of milk to the double boiler. Since I can't stand skin forming on my milk and I make sure I keep the temperature at Medium/Low. Once the milk was heated, I added the white chocolate w/berry pieces to the milk. After stirring frequently and watching the berries come away from the chocolate, I placed a strainer over my mug. I poured the yellowish colored mixture into the mug/strainer, leaving the berries behind.

Ahhhh! Finally, I sat down to enjoy my quick creation. Ohhhh! Too sugary for me? However, you can takes the essence of the berries. Cranberries were definitely was included in the mix. Oh well, I will save the other square for another adventure.

A hot chocolate fanatic!

Growing up it was all about Ovaltine and Swiss Miss. But as I matured and traveled around, what I thought was hot chocolate was definitely not what true hot chocolate is all about.

I’ve been on a mission to find new hot chocolates and to create my own recipes for the perfect cup of hot chocolate. Since all of the big companies like Hershey’s and Nestles are jumping on to the hot chocolate bandwagon, they may finally develop a true hot chocolate. I can’t wait! But until then, here is one of my personal creations, Creamy Caramel Hot Chocolate:

Ingredients:
½ c Milk (Whole Milk)
½ c Heavy Cream
1/3 c Bittersweet Chocolate (Bittersweet 70% by Scharffen Berger)
1 tbl Dulce de Leche (Caramel Creme in Spanish)
1 tbl Sugar
½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions:
Chop the Bittersweet Chocolate into smaller pieces. Measure out 1/3 cup of Chocolate.
In a double boiler with simmering not boiling water, add the Bittersweet Chocolate.
After the chocolate has melted. Add your Milk, Heavy Cream and Dulce de Leche. Whisk together well.
Once blended, add your Sugar, Cinnamon and Vanilla. Whisk again.

Makes 1 serving.