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Cocoa with Malted Milk
Mix four tablespoonfuls of malted milk with four teaspoonfuls of cocoa and sugar to taste. Pour on slowly three cups of boiling water and boil three minutes.
A powder drink that predates instant cocoa mixes: malted milk powder supplies the dairy, so no milk is needed. The whole thing hinges on wetting the powders properly before they meet the full volume of water.
- Make a paste firstCocoa and malted milk powder both clump on contact with boiling water. Stir the dry powders and sugar together, add a few tablespoons of the hot water to make a smooth paste, then add the rest slowly as directed.
- Malted milkStill sold; several current brands (Carnation, Horlicks) are sweetened. Taste before adding sugar; you may want none.
- CocoaUnsweetened cocoa powder is what is meant here; natural cocoa is the likelier period default, though the recipe does not specify. Four teaspoons to three cups of liquid is a mild cocoa rather than a rich one.
- The three-minute boilBoiling was standard advice for gelatinizing the starch in cocoa and removing its raw taste. A hard boil will scorch the milk solids in the malted powder, so keep it to a bare simmer with a whisk in hand, or simply bring it to a boil and pull it off.
- YieldAbout three cups going in, a little less after the three-minute boil: two generous mugs or three small cups.
- If it separatesMalted milk powder sits out of suspension on standing. Whisk again just before pouring, or froth it briefly with an immersion blender.
Malted milk powder was a commercial product of the 1880s, developed as an infant and invalid food, and later taken up by soda fountains, where it needed only water and a stir to become a drink.