Hello friends, I hope everyone is enjoying your winter days. Today I bring to you the winter special homemade hot chocolate recipe.
There’s nothing like warming up with a nice hot drink during chilly weather. I do love just snuggling up on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate, coffee, tea and watching TV.
Kids always love chocolates and chocolaty stuffs. Don’t waste your money on those instant chocolate drinks. Commercial instant chocolate drinks often contain extra ingredients like sugar, vegetable oils, corn syrup etc. But no worries you can make your own hot chocolate at home and give them real hot chocolate without feeling guilty.
Hot chocolate and hot cocoa are often confused. Hot cocoa is made from raw cocoa powder which is pressed chocolate with no fat of the cocoa butter. Hot chocolate is made from chocolate bars melted into a cream. A little amount of cocoa powder can be added to prepare hot chocolates.
We keep hearing more and more about the health benefits of chocolate nowadays, isn’t it?
Benefits of Homemade Hot Chocolate:
Drinking homemade hot chocolate benefits our health in many ways. Here are few benefits of chocolate or homemade hot chocolate.
1. Increases immunity:
Hot chocolate is a great way to get nutrition and easy way to boost children’s immune response.
2. Antioxidants:
Hot chocolate contains antioxidants and more amounts of antioxidants are released when it’s heated. So it’s very important that hot chocolate should be always “hot”.
3. Flavonoids:
One of the antioxidant present in chocolates has the following health benefits.
- Lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease
- Helps to prevent platelets in blood from forming clots
- Increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain thus increase brains thinking ability.
4. The antioxidant gallic acid in chocolates is used to treat internal haemorrhages, albuminuria and diabetes.
5. Antioxidants in chocolates help to prevent cancer, heart disease, age-related macular degeneration and aging because they fight free radicals in the body.
6. Chocolate contains serotonin; a feel-good neurotransmitter is a natural antidepressant.
7. Dementia, a loss of brain function is caused by a reduced flow of blood to the brain. Now researchers think it could be treated with cocoa
How To Prepare Homemade Hot Chocolate?
Today I am going to share with you the preparation method of homemade hot chocolate. Here we go.
Finely chop the chocolate into small pieces and keep it aside.
Take milk in a thick-bottomed pan, add cocoa powder, sugar (if adding) and mix it well till cocoa powder gets nicely blended. Switch off the flame and add honey to this. Keep pan in low flame stirring continuously. When the milk starts heating up, add the chopped chocolates and whisk until the chocolate has melted. Add the vanilla extract and salt. Heat for another 1-2 minutes by constantly stirring without making it to boil.
- Switch off immediately. Pour in serving mugs and serve. Add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle a pinch cocoa powder if you want.
PrintHomemade Hot Chocolate Author: Jayalekshmy Velswamy Ingredients
- Milk - 1 cup
- Chocolate bar - 4
- Unsweetened cocoa powder -1/4 teaspoon
- Honey -1/4 teaspoon
- Vanilla essence -1/4 teaspoon
- Salt -a pinch
- Sugar-1/4 tsp
- For garnishing (completely optional):
- Whipped cream
- A pinch of cocoa powder
- Finely chop the chocolate into small pieces and keep it aside
- Take milk in a thick-bottomed pan, add cocoa powder, sugar (if adding) and mix it well till cocoa powder gets nicely blended. Switch off the flame
- Add honey to this and mix
- Now keep pan in low flame stirring continuously
- When the milk starts heated up, add the chopped chocolates and whisk until the chocolate has melted
- Now add the vanilla extract and salt
- Heat for another 1-2 minutes by constantly stirring without making it to boil
- Switch off immediately. Pour in serving mugs and serve
- Add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle a pinch cocoa powder if you want
2. I didn't add sugar as chocolates itself give good amount of sweetness3.2.2885
Notes:
- Please make sure that the milk doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
- You can also flavor up your hot chocolate by adding cinnamon or other spices of your choice. Brew spices into the milk before adding chopped chocolate, just heat it and strain out the spices. Then follow the procedure by adding chocolates as you normally would.
- Hot chocolates should be prepared only in very low flame.
- This recipe home made hot chocolate is NOT advisable for babies less than 1.5 years old as it contains cow’s milk and honey.
- Home made hot chocolate is a special treat but shouldn’t be a regular part of your child’s diet as it may cause tooth decay.
After having chocolates or homemade hot chocolate, give your kid a piece of cheese to neutralize the sugars. Make sure that you brush your kid’s teeth too. You can read one thing about dental hygiene in babies as a mom I didnt know about.
Enjoy a cup of homemade chocolate with your kid and let me know how you enjoyed it with your kid.
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Happy chocolaty winter and Xmas!
