19 hours Ago By [email protected] (Karen Hart)
Hot cocoa season calls for some serious planning, especially if you are mixing up a hot chocolate recipe from scratch. Sure, you can buy those blue and white packets of Swiss Miss because they definitely hit the spot after a long, cold day of skiing, but making your own using confectioner's sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, and milk powder gives you control over the taste and sweetness. But if you really want to transform this drink's taste, Alton Brown has a trick that is a hot chocolate mixing and sipping game changer.
The "Good Eats" host shared on his website that when crafting his hot cocoa mix, he toasts the milk powder before blending the ingredients. Why toast your milk powder? It sounds like a lot of work, but the difference between regular and toasted milk powder is all about the taste . Brown wrote, "By simply toasting the milk powder before adding it to the hot cocoa mix, we can capture a wide array of flavors, including caramel, toffee, and malt.
" Think of toasting milk powder like making brown butter. The process is similar, but toasting milk powder doesn't require you to evaporate any liquid. Milk powder is a concentrated powder that's comprised of protein and sugars.
It's already flavorful, but when it gently heats at a temperature above 285 degrees Fahrenheit, the flavor changes and becomes sweeter, nuttier, and more complex. How to handle clumps Alton Brown toasts the milk powder for his hot cocoa on a sheet pan in the oven, but you can also do it on the stovetop if that's your preference. Just make certain you are working with a thin layer so it can turn golden brown as it warms.
Once it hits this hue, immediately remove it from heat or it can quickly go from toasted to burnt. If you find that it is a little clumpy after it cools, the cookbook author says you can pulse it in your food processor until it is nice and fine. But if you don't want the added mess of cleaning your small appliance, pour it into your sifter and it will break up those milk powder lumps the same way it does for flour.
Brown's hot cocoa mix is truly luxurious. He also adds cornstarch to create a thick, lush texture in addition to some cayenne pepper to give his cup of hot chocolate a little heat to contrast with the sweetness. And if you are wondering what to top off this sweet drink with, Brown suggests marshmallows, but hot chocolate fans told Daily Meal their No.
1 favorite topping is whipped cream . Obviously, the choice is yours, but you can always split the difference and use both..
