Francis Lam’s column, “Watch the Stove,” will return next week. But he’s got a great 40%-off pick for cookies perfect to have with your hot cocoa, below. - Ed.
If you live with me, I will try to put things in your food. And I won’t tell you about it. Instead, like all fellow armchair chefs, I’ll study your first bite or sip, eagerly awaiting the moment your eyes roll back in your head and tell us we should open a restaurant. I admit, these impromptu additions are not always so welcome. At my house, hot cocoa is wintertime religion and a hotly contested canvas for my wannabe-Ripert experimentation. My fiancé is a purist when it comes to the stuff, while I simmer mine with pouches of sweet spices and herbs.
If you can forgive the blasphemy, you won’t find a fresher way to impart personality and dimension into hot cocoa. It begins with steeping herbs, spices, or other flavors in the milk, and all you need is a strainer or, if you really want to seem cheffy, cheesecloth and butcher’s twine. Cut a 6-inch-square piece of cloth, place desired flavors in the center, pull up the corners, tuck in the sides and tie tightly. This allows you to simply pull the seasonings out without having to strain and dirty extra dishes.
Your imagination is the limit for what goes into these sachets.
Here’s my basic formula for two mugs of hot cocoa:
Heat 2¼ cups whole milk + ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder + pinch salt + 5 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
And here are the basic instructions to infuse your flavors, but be warned: it takes patience. You can make these drinks while skimping on some of the simmering or steeping time, but for full flavor, we’re talking over 20 minutes, alternating between very low heat and no heat at all:
- Bring the milk and seasonings to a very gentle simmer, steaming but barely bubbling, and simmer 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes.
- Bring the milk back to a simmer for a few minutes, remove the bouquet and whisk in the sugar and cocoa powder, then add sugar, tasting as you go.
Of course, with those instructions in mind, you can go crazy with whatever it is you think you’d like in your cup. Chilies? Candied fruits? Other things that don’t even begin with “c”? Go for it! Here are some of my favorites, some classic, and some a little less so.
Almond and Mint: To steep: 1 small bunch fresh mint, stems and leaves + ¼ cup toasted almonds Plus: Add 2 drops almond extract.
Chocolate and mint go together like Chris and Snoop. Sweet, sometimes floral almond is like their long-lost playmate. A little extract goes a long way, so use an eyedropper if you have one. Or try replacing it altogether with a slug of amaretto.
Orange Ginger To steep: 3 large strips of orange peel + 1 1½-inch hunk of fresh ginger, smashed Plus: Add vanilla extract to taste off heat, just before serving. (Or use grapefruit peel instead of orange, for an unexpected twist)
Hot, spicy ginger and aromatic citrus balance chocolate’s richness and underscore its darker side.
Bourbon Cinnamon-Raisin To steep: 1/3 cup Bourbon-soaked raisins* + 2 cinnamon sticks Plus: Replace the sugar with good maple syrup in the base recipe, and serve with the raisins in the mugs and spoons for them. Optional: Right off the heat, whisk in 1-2 tablespoons (or to taste) of cold salted butter. (This might leave some floating on top, like hot buttered rum.) Finish, if desired, with a slug of bourbon.
Imagine a toasted, buttered cinnamon-raisin bagel dipped in chocolate. That’s this combo, which gets a boozy boost by rehydrating the raisins in Bourbon.
*To do that, simmer the raisins in about a ¼ cup of bourbon, being careful not to boil it vigorously, until the raisins have plumped and the bourbon is nearly dry.
Turkish Pumpkin Pie To steep: ½ teaspoon each allspice, black peppercorn, clove, cardamom + ¼ teaspoon each cumin and coriander + 1 dried Thai chili (or cayenne to taste) + 1 cinnamon stick (Lightly toast the spices before adding them to milk for better flavor)
“Turkey’s version of pumpkin pie spice,” is how James Beard Award winning chef Michael Solomonov describes alluring spice mix baharat. He gets the mix from New York’s La Boîte a Epice for his restaurant, Zahav, but it’s easy to blend an abridged version at home, a sweet-and-savory natural in chocolate and cocoa.
Mexican Coffee To steep: 3 strips of orange peel + 2 cinnamon sticks + 1 teaspoon toasted anise seeds Plus: Replace ¼ cup milk with ¼ cup strong coffee or espresso. Replace the sugar with brown sugar.
This version is inspired by the flavors in the spiced Mexican coffee, cafe de olla. It's traditionally sweetened with packed cones of piloncillo, but you can use brown sugar to achieve the same molasses-like taste.
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