Slow cooker hot chocolate

Hot chocolate recipe

There are few things more comforting than a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Sweet, rich, velvety – it’s like a cashmere blanket for your mouth. Chocolate, or its base ingredient, cocoa, comes from the fruit of the cacao tree, native to Central and South America. Cocoa is made from the fermented, roasted and ground seed kernels of the fruit.

Mesoamericans, including the Mayans and the Aztecs of present-day Mexico, consumed cacao, a less processed version of cocoa, in the form of a drink, but it’s unlikely they’d recognise their cacao in our hot chocolate. Archaeological evidence has shown the drink brewed from cacao, known to the Maya as xocōlātl and consumed as early as 500BC, was ground cacao seeds mixed with water, chilli, cornmeal and other ingredients. It was poured between a pot and a cup until it was thick and frothy. And the taste? Well, sugar hadn’t reached the Americas at this time so it was spicy and bitter rather than sweet and creamy. It was considered a drink of the elite and it was highly prized.

How to make hot chocolate

If your regular hot chocolate involves a couple of teaspoons of brown powder and a microwave, read on. There’s no shame in instant hot chocolate – sometimes you need a quick fix – but if you’ve got time, this slow-cooker version delivers on every chocoholic promise. It requires a little more equipment and a lot more time, but there’s hardly any effort involved. As far as ingredients go, it’s simple: chocolate and milk, plus some cream and cocoa to serve and voila: the best hot chocolate.

Place the chocolate and the milk in your slow cooker and cook on high for an hour so that the chocolate melts. Stir occasionally to distribute the chocolate and make sure it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. The aroma of the chocolate may prove too much, but let it slowly bubble away for the full hour – it’s worth it. If you have more time up your sleeve, you can also cook your homemade hot chocolate on low for two hours (or even longer) – the result is super creamy. If you’re keen to make it richer, substitute a cup of cream for the milk.

When it comes to serving, dress your hot chocolate any way you please (or not at all!). Whipped cream and chocolate shavings are always top-tier garnishes, but we also recommend mini marshmallows that can bob cheerfully about in their chocolate bath until their time comes.

Hot chocolate around the world

Today, hot chocolates appear on cafe menus and in home kitchens around the world. It remains a popular drink in South and Central America, where its preparation differs depending on the region. Colombia’s chocolat santafereño is served frothy with a chunk of soft, fresh cheese that’s stirred in. In Mexico, a chocolate drink called champerrado is served at Christmastime that has masa farina, or cornmeal, in it. In Argentina, hot milk is presented with a bar of chocolate that’s stirred in until melted, a delicacy known as a submarino.

Spanish hot chocolate – super-thick chocolat caliente – commonly accompanies long doughnuts called churros, which are used to convey chocolate to mouth. French hot chocolate chocolat chaud is often consumed for breakfast from a big mug into which bread or pastry is dipped. Italian hot chocolate, cioccolata calda, is usually so thick (thanks to a little cornstarch) it’s consumed with a spoon. In Hungary, it’s spiked with paprika and white pepper and called forró csokoládé. In Austria’s capital Vienna, the chocolate is famously thick and silky, which is achieved with the addition of an egg yolk.

The Philippines, with its history as a Spanish colony, also has its own version, tsokolate. It’s made using tablets of cacao, hot water and a batidor, a kind of baton used to whisk the chocolate to frothy perfection, and it’s usually served at breakfast with bread and salty butter.

Now get cooking

A simple addition can make your plain hot chocolate more exciting. Try adding a couple of cinnamon quills to the mixture to impart warm spice, removing just before serving. Do the same thing with a whole vanilla pod – use a sharp knife to split the pod, scrape out the tiny seeds and add them to the hot chocolate. Throw in the pods and fish them out just before you pour. You can also add a shot of your favourite liqueur to each cup – try Frangelico for a Nutella hot chocolate effect, peppermint schnapps for a mint hot chocolate, or make a Baileys hot chocolate with a splash of the Irish cream.

We’ve got more hot chocolate recipes for those who can’t get enough. Go in a new direction with this decadent spiced white hot chocolate, or warm things up with a cinnamon chilli hot chocolate. If this is all a bit much for the little ones, treat them with these loaded hot chocolate spoons that they can stir into warm milk.