Chocolate
2 squares chocolate 4 tablespoons cold water 2 teaspoons sugar 3 cups milk 1 teaspoon vanilla, if liked whipped cream Put chocolate into a saucepan or the inner vessel of a double boiler, with water and sugar; cook over gentle heat until chocolate is melted; add milk gradually and bring to boiling point. Beat until foamy, flavor with vanilla if liked, and serve with a spoonful of whipped cream on each cup. Serves 4.
A straightforward drinking chocolate that relies on melting the chocolate with water first, which is worth keeping. A few terms need translating.
- "Squares" of chocolateA square conventionally means one ounce of baking chocolate, so this is about 2 oz total for 3 cups of milk. The recipe does not say which kind; unsweetened is the usual reading given the added sugar. Modern baking bars are commonly scored into 1 oz sections, so weigh rather than count if the wrapper is unclear.
- Sugar is deliberately lowTwo teaspoons for three cups of milk is barely sweet by current expectations, especially if the chocolate is unsweetened and carries no sugar of its own. Taste before serving and add more if wanted; the whipped cream is part of the balance.
- Melt with the water firstChocolate and water cooked together to a smooth paste is the hinge of the method. It disperses the cocoa solids so the finished drink is not grainy, and it keeps the chocolate from scorching against dry heat.
- "Bring to boiling point"Take it just to the first shiver of bubbles at the edge and no further. Milk held at a rolling boil throws a skin and catches on the pan bottom.
- Beating until foamyA wire whisk works, but a stick blender or a small milk frother gives a better head.
- YieldFour cups of about 6 oz each, or three generous mugs.
Recipes like this one sit at a turning point in American home cooking: cocoa powder, cheaper and more shelf-stable after van Houten's pressing and alkalizing methods spread during the nineteenth century, was steadily displacing solid chocolate as the everyday drink. Many books of the era print both, with "Chocolate" made from bar chocolate as the richer version and "Cocoa" as the thinner, more economical one. The water-and-sugar paste at the start recalls much older practice, when drinking chocolate was ground with sugar and worked with hot liquid to a froth, often with a wooden mill or molinillo. Serving it with whipped cream rather than the froth of the chocolate itself may reflect American sweet-shop and soda-fountain habits.