Welcome to How To Cook That, i'm Ann Reardon and in this episode I'm going to share with you
a 100-year-old hot chocolate recipe that is literally the best homemade hot chocolate
I have ever tasted 😍 Now I don't say that lightly because I don't drink tea or coffee so
hot chocolate is the hot drink that I drink and I have tried so many recipes and not found any
of them great but this one is wonderful. I found this chocolate and cocoa recipe booklet from 1911
and this was actually a promotional recipe booklet that you used to be able to get for free when you
bought Walter Baker chocolate 100 years ago and in it is all sorts of recipes and information
about chocolate and the recipe for what it calls plain chocolate which is the amazing hot chocolate
recipe that I'm going to show you how to make. It says to mix one tablespoon of cornstarch
with one gil of milk. Now a gil is about 100 mils so about that much that'll do
then add in the cornstarch or the corn flour and mix that until there are no more lumps.
It says to put the remainder of the milk in a pan and onto the heat. Now I've chosen
a really big pan here it looks like it's oversized for the job but you'll see why I did that
in a minute. Put that over a low heat and it says when the milk comes to boiling point stir
in the cornstarch. Now as you can see when milk boils it bubbles right up and that's why we've
got the big pan now tip in that cornstarch and stir it in and then it says to cook this for 10
minutes. Now don't skimp on this step because this is doing two things ... one you need a couple of
minutes to cook the cornstarch so it doesn't taste floury and two ... the remaining eight
minutes are evaporating off some of the water from the milk which leaves you with a richer
creamier hot chocolate. The recipe book talks about this hot chocolate as if it has magical
powers listen to this: it says it's a perfect food as wholesome as delicious a beneficent restorer of
exhausted power it's highly nourishing it's easily digested and is fitted to repair wasted strength,
preserve health and prolong life! Wow. It agrees with dry temperaments and convalescence with
mothers who nurse their children with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo severe mental
strains with public speakers and with all those who give work to a portion of the time needed for
sleep. It soothes both the stomach and the brain and for this reason as well as for others it's
the best friend of those who engage in literary pursuits. Amazing claims! Next we need two ounces
of Walter Baker's premium number one chocolate now Walter Baker had three different chocolates
on the market at the time you've got this german's sweet chocolate now Samuel German was one of the
employees at the cocoa mill back in 1819 and he came up with the idea of making chocolate with
not just cocoa beans and a little bit of sugar and some vanilla but also adding in some coffee beans.
Everyone liked it so Dr Baker bought the recipe off him and paid him 10 times his yearly salary
how generous is that! And then he also named the chocolate bar after him what a great boss how
lovely to have a generous payout for the recipe and a chocolate bar named after you. Then they had
this one which is a sweet chocolate, it has the trademark picture on the front. This is actually a
very old pastel painting from 1743 by Jean-Etienne Liotard, a famous artist of the time. He was
known for his portraits he even painted Marie Antoinette before she became the Queen of France.
No one is sure who the girl in this picture is serving the hot chocolate
some stories say she is Anna Baltauf who was the daughter of an impoverished knight. She actually
worked at the chocolate shops in Vienna and one day young Prince Dietrichstein met her fell in
love and married her and so the story goes he commissioned the famous artist to paint her
as he met her serving chocolate. No one knows for sure but we do know that the Walter Baker
company bought a copy of the painting to go on their cocoa packaging and their sweet chocolate.
This one is actually a white chocolate and white chocolate just has the cocoa fat from the cocoa
beans and not the cocoa powder, so if you break this down you get fat and cocoa powder they've
just taken the fat from it mixed it with some sugar and some vanilla. That's not what we want
in this recipe and then this one is their famous premium number one baker's chocolate named after
Dr Baker the original owner of the company. It has hardly any sugar in it it is the cocoa beans
ground up with a little bit of vanilla and that is what we want to use today. A third of people were
illiterate at this time so having very different coloured labels for the different chocolate
was important for telling them apart. In the shops you can just look for any dark chocolate that has
the highest percentage of cocoa solids that you can find. Next it says to have the chocolate cut
in fine bits and put it in a small iron or granite ware pan and add three tablespoons of sugar and
two tablespoons of hot water and place a pan over a hot fire and stir until smooth and glossy. I'm
gonna skip the pan and the fire and just microwave it for 15 seconds instead. Now you can see it
still looks grainy and that's okay that's just the sugar and that will dissolve in the hot milk all
we're trying to do here was melt the chocolate and mix it in with the water so it's easier to
combine with the milk. Now it says to add this to the hot milk and beat the mixture with a whisk
until it's frothy i love frothy hot chocolates and then it says serve at once. Look how good
that looks 😋 I'm gonna add some marshmallows and a sprinkle of extra chocolate and this is so yummy.
But you do need to take note of what it says in the book ... it says people who make constant
use of chocolate are the ones who enjoy the most steady health and are the least subject
to a multitude of little ailments which destroy the comfort of life. With thanks to my wonderful
patrons who support this channel you can join them here and if you want to get hold of my cookbook it
is here. If you like this series let the algorithm know by liking sharing commenting subscribing and
watching more make it a great week by being kind to others and i'll see you on Friday.