Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Now that I have the attention of the entire state of Minnesota, please allow me to expound.
This is one of the most clever ideas I’ve seen out of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Circle lately. (And they’re no creative slouches over at King Arthur.) In the most recent e-newsletter* from their test kitchen they included a recipe for Cocoa Blocks.
*If you’d like to receive their free e-newsletter, you can click this link and look for the sign-up box in the lower right hand corner of the page.
Oh sweet merciful heavens. Cocoa blocks. Very utilitarian name, no? Nothing against my King Arthur folks, because I really do love them, but I think the name doesn’t do justice to these little beauties. I’ve renamed them. Henceforth, they shall be called Hot Chocolate On A Stick.
Hot Chocolate on a Stick is a creamy chocolate confection that is much like an ultra-rich fudge. You can, as the new title indicates, put these blocks of chocolatey goodness on sticks for ease in swirling it in hot milk or nibbling.
Or, if you’re a rebel (or not from the Midwest), you can simply leave the squares alone and stir them into your hot drinks. Or you can go another step, as I am wont to do, and skewer a marshmallow on top of the block of chocolate.
And since we’re playing with marshmallows already, why not make them homemade*? That opens up the possibilities of all kinds of decadent flavor combinations; mocha chocolate with cocoa marshmallows, orange chocolate with vanilla marshmallows, plain chocolate with raspberry marshmallows, or pure chocolate and vanilla marshmallows.
~~~ ~~~
*Last year Val posted a homemade marshmallow recipe in our Homemade Christmas Gifts series. (See that post here!) Homemade marshmallows, if you’ve never had them, are a completely different animal than those little round foam-like jobbies you get in bags at the grocery store. They’re ethereally light, sweet and endlessly customizable. Have a hankering for an orange flavored marshmallow without the nasty food coloring? It can be done. Want a mocha marshmallow? (Just try finding THAT at your local mega-mart.) It’s only moments away. You get my drift, right?
So if you combine luscious, velvety, rich fudge with light-as-air homemade marshmallows it should follow that what you’ve created is heavenly. And it is. Oh, it is! Not to put too fine a point on it, but having these in my kitchen was the only thing standing between me and a potential sale of my children to the gypsies early career apprenticeship commitment for my children. I hid in the bathroom with a ‘Hot Chocolate on a Stick’ and nibbled my irritation away.
I could’ve taken a cup of hot milk to the bathroom with me, but I was in a hurry, people. I needed the chocolate and I needed it fast. The kids, on the other hand, found the stash while I was hiding (and small price to pay for the peace it brought me) and stirred theirs into hot cups of milk. I hear tell that they enjoyed it immensely. The chocolate rings around their mouths bore out their testimony.
Kid tested. Mother approved.
~~~ ~~~
May I recommend that you whip up a batch or two or three of these? Keep one batch for yourself. Wrap one batch in plastic and pretty ribbons for gift-giving. And that last batch? Well, give it away one at a time to your kids’ teachers, bus drivers, your preacher, the mail carrier, the elderly man or woman down the road who lost their spouse this year, the gal in the apartment two doors down who looks a little lonely, or anyone else who looks like they could use a good dose of seasonal cheer.
Let’s do a quick refresher on the marshmallows:
For a photo-free, printer friendly version of the Marshmallow recipe, click here!
Homemade Marshmallows
This is mainly Val’s recipe, but I’ve added a few of my own notes.
Ingredients:
- .75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cups light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or other flavor extract)
- Confectioners’ sugar
Line 9 x 9-inch or 8 x 8-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it using your fingers or non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil. As soon as it is boiling, set the timer and allow to boil hard for 1 minute.
Carefully pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, starting on low and moving up to high speed. Add the salt and beat for between 10 and 12 minutes, or until fluffy and mostly cooled to almost room temperature. After it reaches that stage, add in the extract and beat to incorporate.
Grease your hands and a rubber or silicone scraper with neutral oil and transfer marshmallow into the prepared pan. Use your greased hands to press the marshmallow into the pan evenly. Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.
Sprinkle a cutting surface very generously with confectioner’s sugar.
Remove marshmallow from pan and lay on top of the sugar.
Dust the top generously with sugar as well.
Use a large, sharp knife to cut into squares.
Separate pieces and toss to coat all surfaces with the sugar.
Store in an airtight container.
Now for the Hot Chocolate on a Stick!
For a photo-free, printer friendly version of the Hot Chocolate on a Stick recipe, click here!
Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Ingredients:
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
- 3 cups semisweet chocolate (3 cups chopped chocolate bars or chips)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate (4 ounces)
- wooden sticks, lollipop sticks, candy canes or bamboo skewers
- optional, crushed candy canes, marshmallows and/or cocoa powder
Line an 8 x 8-inch pan or a 9 x 9-inch pan with foil and set aside.
Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling, stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.
Add all of the chocolate and remove from the heat. Allow the chocolate to melt, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, whisk firmly until it is thick and shiny. You can add a few drops of flavoring extract or oil at this point, or add some powdered espresso or vanilla. Whisk vigorously again to incorporate the flavoring (if used.)
Use a rubber or silicone spatula to spread the mixture out evenly in your prepared, foil-lined pan.
Allow to cool at room temperature 12 hours or overnight so that it firms slowly.
Take the fudge from the pan and remove the foil. Place on a cutting board.
Using a knife heated with hot water and wiped dry, cut the fudge into 36 equal-sized cubes. You can either stick a lollipop stick (or candy cane) into the center of each block or leave as is. Additionally, you can press the cut sides of the fudge into crushed candy canes, roll them in cocoa powder or top with marshmallows.
Eat immediately or wrap tightly and store at room temperature.
If you make more than one batch and use different flavorings for the marshmallows or chocolate, you can use different colored ribbons to indicate the flavors. Silver for mocha chocolate and vanilla marshmallows, gold for plain chocolate and raspberry marshmallows, for instance…
Hey… Someone’s snuck off with my raspberry marshmallow Hot Chocolate on a Stick…
Oh well, I’ll make more.
Remember, it’s Christmas time!
Love this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or can I just eat them of the stick? Yum!
Great idea! Beautiful and looks way too tasty!
Jo- It’s power food for moms.
Ranee- Oh yes. By all means. I did.
May- Thank you. It’s all that and easy to make, too.
Oh my! I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a few yrs now. This is definately the yr. I planned on including homemade hot cocoa in some foodie baskets this yr. These will be a perfect addition!
Thanks so much for sharing!
~Liz
I think my heart actually skipped a beat there. Thanks for the inspiration!
Not ambitious enough to make the mashmallow from scratch, but have no doubt that I will be making these confections over the weekend. How genius. In the meantime, I’m contemplating making that photo my screen-saver.
Liz- You’re more than welcome! Do try the marshmallows- it’s so simple!
Fiona- Glad to cause your arrhythmia. Chocolate can cure that, I think…
Amy- The marshmallows are really super easy but as long as you make the chocolate part I cannot complain. I’m glad you like the picture!
[...] he even put pictures on himself on a stick. It’s what we do. So when I came across this post on Tastespotting I knew I had to try [...]
These are genius! I love them and cannot wait to make them!
I wrote this comment as a review for these on Tasty Kitchen, but since there isn’t an email notification service (right?) I wasn’t sure when or if you’d see it
…
I loved this idea so much I’ve made two batches in the past couple of days
— a mint version rolled in crushed candy canes, and the other rolled in cinnamon. They’re so cute! If you don’t mind I’m planning on posting this to my blog soon — as well as on another collaborative blog I contribute to: themamadramalogues.blogspot.com. Props will definitely be headed in your direction. Thanks!!
Thanks for posting this recipe! We got snowed in the past two days and I made a few batches to go in a holiday cookie treat bag for some friends and family. I didn’t do as well as you with cutting them evenly; I made the chocolate in a 9×13 (double recipe) and some of them ended up being a bit gigantic! I’ll make sure to give the huge ones to the chocoholics! : )
How long do these stay good for after making?
Good question! Between the high sugar count and the chemical composition of chocolate, these puppies should theoretically have a great deal of staying power. However, they never last long enough around here for me to test anything beyond a week. You should be safe, though, wrapping them tightly and storing them at room temperature for up to 3 weeks!
I made these after reading your post and they’re FANTASTIC! But what a pain to wrap all 36 of them
I had one question, you mentioned using 9×9 or 8×8 pans for both the cocoa blocks and marshmallows. I used 9×9s for both and they both turned out about twice the height of yours! (the marshmallows maybe 3x). Am I doing something wrong?
I want to try BUT put some Rasberry flavoring in the marshmallow! Maybe Mint? ….. or Rum for adults ???
In the words of one of my favorite Food Network stars….YUMM-O!! Can’t wait to try these!!
~you can take the girl out of MN, but you can’t take MN out of the girl.
Wow! These look fantastic. I’m going to make them (with marshmallows) and send half a dozen to an elderly couple I love. I mentioned that I would make them homemade marshmallows, and homemade marshmallows and hot chocolate on a stick = even better! I will plan to wrap each individually, pack in a tin with tissue padding, and mail them. I hope they’ll survive okay through the mail system–any thoughts?
Also, I’ll be interested to see your reply to Caitlin above–the photo for the fudge actually does look like a rectangular pan in the “finished” photo. But maybe it’s just the angle of the shot. I’ll check back before I make them and hope you’ve had a chance to clarify.
David Lebowitz posted a link to your site on his Facebook feed; that’s how I found you. What a wonderful food site! You are now officially bookmarked!
Thanks so much,
BookieBookie
These look fantastic – I can’t wait to have a go!
I am tempted to dash out this evening to try and find condensed milk, but rare subzero temperatures and heavy snow do mean that driving is out … how much do I want these? enough to walk, I think!
Caitlin- Hmmmm. That’s a head-scratcher. I used 9×9s. I wonder if it’s just the perspective of the photos that makes them look different? You’re not doing anything wrong as long as they tasted great
Barbara- Yes, yes, yes! to the raspberry. And the mint. And the rum! What about mint marshmallows on rum infused chocolate? Kind of a chocolatey mojito?
Sheri- Thank ye. And I think the food-on-a-stick phenomenon is one valued by all of us midwesterners.
BookieBookie- Shucks. Thank you! And funny you should mention mailing thoughts, I just mailed a box of a dozen to my husband’s aunt in Texas from out here in New York a couple weeks ago. I had them all individually wrapped and they were on chopsticks instead of lollipop sticks. I laid them out so the chocolate was on the outside of the box and padded between each of them with packing peanuts, air-filled bags and tissue paper. I shipped them because I didn’t want to take them on the plane when we went down to visit her. They arrived in mostly perfect condition when we were already at her house. I think were I to do it again I would really focus on immobilizing them as they were just a wee bit chuffed up when they arrived. It wasn’t enough to make them ugly, but my sense of perfectionism was a little offended. Let me know how your shipping goes because I’d love to send these out again! And thanks for the heads-up on finding me through David Lebovitz. Now I have yet another reason to love him! I’m glad you found me and look forward to talking to you again!
I love to make these with honey for my kids with allergies–I use 2 cups, and 2 envelopes gelatin, no h2o. I just cook the honey to soft ball before continuing with the rest of the recipe–it gives me nice tall mallows! And as per my ancient recipe, I would put them on brown paper on a cookie sheet–I like the greased wrap idea better–it looks sticky-free! What a concept!
xoxoxome
I can attest to those honey marshmallows being gooooood. I have eaten my share of Middle Sis’s wares. If you have kids with corn allergies definitely give them a try.
Kate- Did you brave the cold?
[...] Foodie With Family » Hot Chocolate on a Stick – [...]
Does the hot choclate on the stick melt slowly when I place it in a hot coffee or will it somehow keep it’s consistence? Thank you for the idea !
[...] it was, a link to the most beautifully indulgent winter-warming concept. The original post is here written by Rebecca & Val at ‘Foodie with Family’ which is a lovely blog and well [...]
[...] adapted from http://www.foodiewithfamily.com [...]