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I've made hot chocolate before however it's only ever been the instant powdered variant by Cadbury's, however today I bought some hot chocolate by "Charbonnel et Walker", I don't know if anyone knows about this drinking chocolate but it isn't powdered instead it's comprised of really fine and small flakes of chocolate and you're meant to mix them with the milk I guess? I did so but the consistency of the hot chocolate was off; that is to say that although the flakes melted a little they congealed/massed on the surface of the hot milk rather than assimilate and no matter how much I stirred they'd still rise back to the top.

My steps were: I microwaved some full fat milk till it was a hot, mixed the recommended amount of chocolate flakes in and some brown sugar, gave it a good stir and put it back in the microwave.

I've probably made this wrong, was I meant to make this in a sauce pan? Could anyone help me with this? Thank you.

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  • Did you mix the chocolate flakes in advance with the brown sugar or did you added them separately?
    – Mien
    Oct 24, 2013 at 19:43
  • I microwaved the milk till it was hot, and then added the brown sugar and chocolate flakes together and then put the milk back in the microwave
    – seeker
    Oct 24, 2013 at 19:48
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    Have you tried the cocoa powder method? Also, what (if any) directions are on the package?
    – Marti
    Oct 24, 2013 at 21:49
  • I've found a method that works. Basically with the more premium drinking chocolates you need to microwave/heat some butter and mix the drinking chocolate into that, once its becomes paste like you can pour in the hot milk slowly, stirring as you go along, voila!
    – seeker
    Oct 24, 2013 at 22:49

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At Marriott hotel, where I worked for a while, we used similar flakes. Our technique was to add a good splash of boiling water first, incorporate the chocolate flakes by mixing it into a smooth paste (more or less), and only then add hot milk. I guess the idea is that it is much more of a challenge to incorporate a small amount of solid into a large amount of liquid, however if you turn that solid into a paste first, its almost like your mixing two liquids. You'll find that the same technique is used for making a bachamel sauce. For convenience sake, try using a small amount of hot milk, instead of water. Also, having your liquid boiling might help, which is hard to achieve in a microwave. e.g. when making a classic chocolate sauce which contains butter and cream, the chocolate is only fully dissolved when the liquid is boiled.

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  • OK, so basically it's the same method as you'd use with cocoa powder.
    – Marti
    Oct 25, 2013 at 1:09

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