Cocoa mix

A number of cocoa mixes don't require boiling water, just hot water. The Wegman's brand is one that I know of.

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the info! I will give it a try.

Regards,
John

Yep, you don't need boiling water for any of the truly instant mixes. In fact you can even drink them cold if you wanted!

Btw, you can make instant cocoa mixes quite easily as well – I have a number of them up on my site: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/types/drinks

Thank you Sarah. I will give those a go as well. I wish I could remember the brand in the photo, as it sisolves good in cold water and made great trail milkshakes!
Regards,
John

Pouring boiling water over dry milk (part of your cocoa mix) is not too good an idea; it may cook it into lumps. I use hot but not boiling water. I far prefer my own cocoa mix to the manufactured kind (Swiss Miss, etc.)–if you read the ingredients of the latter, you'll know why. Another reason for making my own is to use less sugar than is in the standard mixes found in the store. Milk itself has a lot of natural sugar.

Best, of course, is to finely grate semi-sweet dark chocolate and stir it into hot milk. Yummy and rich!

Mary, could you post your recipe?

Mary has that right….yum! Grated chocolate makes it all better, no? ;-)

This is great info, thanks everyone. Perfect timing too as I take a little family hike very soon. Can wait to try out that Faux Mocha too (in the link provided above). Good stuff.

Cocoa mix recipe–your favorite cocoa recipe plus 1/3 C. dried milk for each cup. Mix very thoroughly. I prefer to package individual servings in sandwich bags. Use hot, not boiling water to mix (boiling water may cook/curdle the milk, making nasty lumps), and mix with maybe 1/3 C. water to make a paste before adding the rest of the water.

I like to use high quality cocoa or cocoa mix (the kind you add to milk) like Ghiardelli, Dagoba or, especially, Green & Black. Read the ingredients on the supermarket stuff like Swiss Miss and you'll see why I avoid it. For my own use, I prefer to make my own mix from scratch (cocoa, sugar, dried milk) so I can cut back on the sugar. That takes more pre-mixing than using a cocoa mix, to get out the lumps of powdered cocoa. It's easier with the cocoa mix.

Important–Experiment at home and make no more than a cup of cocoa at a time until the mix is as you like it. You may want to use more or less dried milk, more or less cocoa, more or less sugar. Some like a few grains of salt added. I like to add a little cinnamon. My son #3 likes a dash of cayenne pepper. YMMV!

For mocha, add a little instant coffee. If you don't want mocha, use Sarah's recipes without the coffee

The Green and Black Cocoa is fabulous as is the Cocoa from Camino.

Green and Black is fabulous, as is Dagoba, both already mentioned. Dagoba also makes a chai hot cocoa that's pretty killer! And yes, I said that right, not chai tea, chai hot cocoa! It's even got bits of ginger in it.

Has anyone tried the Dagoba Xocolatl chocolate with chilies and spice?

I tried some chile-chocolate (in solid form) from Trader Joes recently, but the taste was too strong for me. That is, the chile flavor overpowered the chocolate flavor. Perhaps the extra spices in the Dagoba cocoa mix would mellow it out a bit.

>>Has anyone tried the Dagoba Xocolatl chocolate with chilies and spice?

I had the bar version, and it is very good…

I make a killer "Mexican Pudding", from excellent chocolate, chili, and cayenne pepper.
They play well together.

I make a killer "Mexican Pudding", from excellent chocolate, chili, and cayenne pepper.
They play well together.

Any chance you'd be willing to share the recipe with us?

"Has anyone tried the Dagoba Xocolatl chocolate with chilies and spice?"

I have, and found out I'm not a chilies cocoa kinda guy. I think it would be great for someone who likes the "Mexican Hot Chocolate" kind of drink.

Diana,

This is not trail food.
Cayenne is Not in the original recipe. I added it. (Quality Ancho Chili IS there.)
Do Not scoff until you’ve tried it.

Mexican Pudding a la Bittman.

I love dark chocolate–especially with some additional kick to punch it up. Douglas, the Dagoba, chai hot cocoa sounds great. Did you buy it on-line, or are you able to find it in your local markets?

Greg, the Mexican pudding sounds great, too. The tofu was a surprise, but because it's a no-cook recipe, it looks simple to make. I'll bet it's yummy, too. I'll give it a try soon. Did you add cayenne (and also use ancho chili) or did you substitute cayenne and leave the ancho chili out?

I make a Mexican Hot Chocolate. I could post the recipe if anyone wants (or, if you have my book its on page 218 under the title Mayan Hot Chocolate). I also make a chili spiced brownie for those who aren't UL and take an Outback Oven and I have a Chai Hot Chocolate Recipe. If you'd like I can start a new thread to post and share our spiced chocolate recipes.

Also, Lindt makes a gorgeous dark chocolate and chili bar that is available here in North America, however in Europe, Lindt has a filled line with Mango and Chili, and Pomegranate and Chili, which are amazing.

Blueberry is totally delicious with chocolate too.

Hi Diana. I've got this delightful local organic market at which I can buy it. If you can't find it locally PM me your address and I'll send you a bit in a ziploc for you to try.

Hi Laurie,

I would definitely be interested in learning Mexican hot chocolate and other spiced drink recipes. Post away, por favor…

I'd be interested in seeing any recipes, chocolate or otherwise, anyone cares to share.

Laurie, thanks for pointing out your recipe. I got your book for Christmas but hadn't caught that one. Made it this evening; left out the creamer (don't have any, and not into chemicals) and used some ancho powder instead of the crushed red pepper. Wow, that's great. Can't wait to try it on the trail. I think I'll use cayenne instead of ancho next time, though – I could barely detect it.

Several years ago at a high-end restaurant near Tucson I had dark chocolate and jalepeno ice cream – a truly sublime combination. This may be close to a hot version of that, if I can get the capsicum dialed in.

I'll post them in an hour or so (right now I'm posting from my BlackBerry so I don't have access to the manuscript files).

About the cayenne… one thing I should have mentioned in the book/recipe that I didn't is that the heat of cayenne can vary slightly – so be sure to adjust to suit your tastes. Some hot spices tend to lose a little flavor if they've been sitting around for awhile and I know people who aren't as obsessed as I am about replacing my entire spice cabinet every three to six months.

I'll bet that ice cream was amazing.