Mars Hot Chocolate

What could be better for a chocoholic than a thick and creamy hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day? Two hot chocolates perhaps? This one is a recipe I have had in mind for some time, but it has been so hot and dry this last month that it hardly seemed appropriate. I was even thinking that I would have to leave it until next winter!

I can’t recall a single drop of rain falling here in March, but with the arrival of April it started to rain. As they say here, “En abril, aguas mil” (In April thousands of showers).

A few months ago I saw with interest a recipe for hot chocolate that had the addition of shop-bought caramel sauce. Other recipes and cafés pop a marshmallow or two onto the top of a hot chocolate…… so I thought why not just use a Mars bar instead, killing as it were “dos pájaros de un tiro” (two birds with one stone).

The April rains have also come with freezing nightly temperatures, and I for one am a little worried about the fruit on the trees in our orchard. They will survive a light frost, but only time will tell if this year’s crop has been damaged. I suppose “No hay mal que por bien no venga”  (every cloud has a sliver lining), and that these freezing nights will bring some unexpected benefits, like finally being able to try out my new hot chocolate drink!

By the way, I always put cornflour into my hot chocolate drinks. Hot chocolate in Spain is always thick and creamy, in general unlike the hot chocolates I have had in other countries. I like it this way, and it also makes it much better for dunking in some freshly made Churros. If you prefer a more liquid chocolate drink, just reduce or indeed eliminate the cornflour from the recipe.

Let me just say a word or two at this point about a gentleman called Roberto who was my self-proclaimed teacher of Spanish sayings and idioms. I met him on my first working day in my first job in Spain. He was part of the small team I had been assigned to. He, like the majority of the team spoke no English, so they took it upon themselves to teach me Spanish.  I must admit to feeling unlucky in those first days, as my brain wilted under the constant barrage of a foreign, unintelligible language. This feeling was not helped by the fact that a couple of Australians had been assigned to an English speaking team just a few metres away in the same office.

Some months later I came across the Australians in the city, trying to buy something or other in a shop there. Their pitiful Spanish was insufficient to make the purchase and I had to step in and help out. I realised then that far from being unlucky, I was in fact fortunate to have been assigned to a non-English speaking team.

Many people here find a large cup of thick chocolate and a plateful of churros a delicious and warming treat, but they are inclined to go overboard on the ordering of the churros. This is fine with me as I am always willing to step in and help out. What also works in may favour is well defined by another Spanish saying “La oveja que bala, bocado que pierde” (The sheep that bleats loses it mouthful). The one doing the most talking ends up eating the least…… I often talk little and end up snaffling an extra churro or two from the plates of others!

This recipe is enough for two hot chocolates, but who wants to drink a hot chocolate on their own? I could drink two I guess, seeing as how my friends say I can “Comer como una lima” (as “lima” is in fact a file, a better translation would be “eat like a horse”), but a hot chocolate is one of those things that really should be shared. A good hot chocolate can delight your tastebuds and warm your stomach and heart.

 

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Mars Hot Chocolate

Serves: 2 Cups

 

Ingredients:

425ml Milk

100g Lindt Milk Chocolate

50g Mars Bar

35ml Cornflour

 

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Method:

Put three quarters of the milk in a pan and heat through.

Chop the chocolate and Mars bar into pieces and stir into the milk until dissolved.

Make a paste of the cornflour and remaining milk. Stir into the hot chocolate and heat until thickened.

You can use any make of milk chocolate, but as possibly the last hot chocolate drink of this winter I wanted something that was really decadent. I decided to go for a bar of Lindt milk chocolate!

 

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Suggested Links:

For this week’s recommendations I have three other treats for the chocoholics amongst you:

Cardamom and White Chocolate Biscuits

Tarta Tres Chocolates / Three Chocolates Tart

White Chocolate and Wild Strawberry Muffins

Key:

tsp – Teaspoon – 5ml

tbsp – Tablespoon – 15ml

 

Imperial to Metric Measurement:

1 oz – 28g

1 lb – 16 oz – 454g

1 gill – ¼ pint – 142ml

1 inch – 25mm

 

Common Flour Types:

Cake Flour

Gluten: 8% to 10%

Type: ES 70W

 

All-Purpose Flour / Plain Flour

Gluten: 8% to 11%

Type: DE 550 / FR 55 / IT 0 / ES 200W

 

Bread Flour / Strong Flour / Hard Flour

Gluten: 12% to 14% protein (gluten)

Type: DE 812 / FR 80 / IT 1 / ES 400W

 

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2019 Lincoln W. Betteridge