whine & dine

I love hot chocolate. I don’t really know anyone who doesn’t – save my anti-chocolate girlfriend. Though the one chocolatey thing she has been known to drink is, of course, the abovementioned drink.

Now, I’m flying off in a couple of hours to Hong Kong, and will be heading on to Vietnam after for a total of 12 days. As such, I thought I’d leave you all with a comforting, homely drink to warm your souls and keep you company till I return, ready to bombard with pictures.

This post, really, isn’t about Hot Chocolate though. It’s to talk about a specific type – Mayan Hot Chocolate. It’s the chocolate drink that’s ultra thick to the point of feeling more like molten chocolate than a chocolate drink; sweetened with honey, laced with chillies and various other spices, hailing from the Aztecs. In short, it’s the liquid heaven from which we derive our common warm chocolate milk drink of today.

After having found a chocolate ice cream flavour that I’m really happy with, and having received a request for more ice cream, I decided it was high time to start experimenting. And I really like the flavour that I got with my first try! I highly encourage anyone who likes the spicy kick (but perhaps feels that the drink itself is a tad too thick and rich) to try this.

Further, it’s really not that different from the chocolate thyme ice cream recipe. First, instead of sweetening your hot milk with 50g of sugar, I used 3 tbsp of Manuka honey (‘cos that’s what I’ve got in the fridge – but any mild honey will do), then I steeped 2 tbsp of dried chilli flakes, 1 tsp of ground nutmeg (use freshly ground if you can), 2 cinnamon sticks, and 1 split and scraped vanilla pod in the hot milk for 25 minutes. I also used 250g of chocolate instead of the original 220g – since Mayan chocolate is meant, after all, to be richer, thicker, and chocolatey-er.

You carry on the rest of the recipe in pretty much the same way – make your pâte à bombe, heat your cream and whisk into the chocolate pieces until smooth. Whisk the infused milk into the melted chocolate mixture, then let it cool, and fold into the pâte à bombe, and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Easy peasy! And delicious. And kinda surprising to eat, since the spicy kick really only comes in more as an aftertaste. Which is very cool. In a spicy kind of way. :)

Be good while I’m away, and I’ll see you guys in a few.