Cioccolata Calda

The Italian hot chocolate is much thicker and invigorating in texture and taste than the others versions of hot chocolate in the world.

It has an almost pudding-like texture that does not only give you the option of drinking it as a hot beverage, but with a bit of garnish you can even have or serve it as dessert. Rather than water and chocolate powder, the dish is made with real chocolate, sugar, and milk.

However, it is not only restricted to you using real chocolate, you can also use cocoa powder instead.

Health facts :

Cocoa, the main ingredient of this dish, has numerous health benefits such as acting as an antioxidant, combating heart disease, balancing cholesterol levels, and treating diabetes.

Ingredients

whole milk: 500 ml

Sugar: 60 g

dark chocolate: 120 g

Cocoa powder: 50 g

Potato Starch (only if you are using cocoa powder instead of chocolate): 50 g

How To Make Cioccolata Calda

With chocolate

1. For three minutes melt the dark chocolate in the microwave oven or you can also place the dark chocolate in a bowl and put the bowl in a saucepan filled with hot water.
2. In another saucepan put milk and add sugar to it. Stir it slightly for a few seconds till you feel the milk heating up. Once you are sure that the mixture has warmed ass the melted chocolate and stir vigorously for three to 4 minutes.
3. You can also use milk or white chocolate but you will have to adjust the dose of sugar accordingly.

With cocoa powder

1. In a saucepan mix cocoa, sugar, and starch together. In the meanwhile, heat some milk and then add it to the cocoa mixture. Mix the entire composite without leaving any lumps behind. Then add the remaining milk and mix well. Put the mixture on low heat while you stir it continuously, till you get a creamy thick consistency.

Trivia

Did you know that the one pound of chocolate that you use actually took 400 cocoa beans to make?

The cocoa tree takes 5 years before it can produce the fruit. A normal cocoa tree produces 1000 beans a year but it makes only enough to make 1 kg of chocolate.

At least 70% of the world’s cocoa is made in West Africa and the UK is the world’s largest chocolate consumer with an annual consumption of 11.5 kg.

During the Aztec’s rule cocoa had been much more valuable than gold and silver so when Montezuma (Aztec emperor) was defeated by Cortez in 1519 and his palace was searched, they found large quantities of cocoa rather than silver and gold.