Dec 18
2011
Hot Chocolate Sticks
I’m about to get real crafty on you.
I love making gifts. Buying a gift is fun, especially if you get to see the recipient open it, but making gifts is hugely entertaining. For me, it’s an excuse to try ridiculous and absurd and totally unnecessary edibles. Like this.
I’ve been wanting to make homemade hot chocolate as a gift now for some time, but felt somewhat neutral on the idea of mixing together cocoa and sugar in a jar to create a mix. Finally, I found what I was looking for: a cube of chocolate ON A STICK melted into hot milk, for a creamy, interactive hot chocolate experience. After making a double batch for my friends and family, I most certainly now want to make a batch for myself, and I thought you might, too.
The concept is simple enough: take a really, really good chocolate, melt it, add cocoa and powdered sugar, pipe into mold, add a stick, and call yourself Willy Wonka.
But first, let’s talk about chocolate for a minute. Or rather, melting it. When melting chocolate, water is like poison: a single drop can cause the whole batch to seize up, leaving you with an awkward, clumpy glob. The common impulse at this point is to increase the heat, which only makes matters worse. Traditionally, home bakers have melted chocolate in a double boiler, which produces steam and as you may know, steam is WATER. Not really good for steam to billow out from a double boiler only to collapse immediately into your chocolate. Solution? Microwave. Not the most sophisticated sounding solution, but definitely the easiest and fastest way to get chocolate that is perfectly melted.
Yummers.
Next! Your beautifully melted chocolate is about to turn into a thick, brown, glob that seems unusable. This is exactly the way that it should be. Remember, we’re not going for chocolate milk, we’re going for a rich, thick, creamy mug of miracle, and the cocoa and powdered sugar push us closer to that end.
Getting the chocolate into the molds (these ice cube trays work perrrrfectly) is the next challenge. My first batch was a bit too thick with too many dry ingredients, which produced a sensation in my arms that I was actually squeezing mostly dry concrete out of my piping bag. Keep those dry ingredients loosely packed for a more successful project.
Then prod each with a stick and add four little marshmallows to the top. The marshmallows are not technically required, I suppose, but they do make them look a lot more like hot chocolate and a lot less like a chocolate lollipop. Right? Plus who doesn’t like a few little mallows?
After a few hours of waiting…
*waiting*
*waiting*
they can come out of their little mold, solid as a rock.
Now I suppose you could stop here. But after making such a clever little gift, shouldn’t you give it the courtesy of some fancypants ribbon and some little instructions?
Yes. Yes you should. You’ll have a whole little fleet of gifts so purty you won’t want anyone to unwrap them.
Except that you do. Because otherwise, there would be none of this. Which is really just quite unacceptable.
Hot Chocolate Sticks
Adapted from Giver’slog
Makes 15-16 sticks
Update: It seems that some people have had trouble with the consistency of the mixture becoming too thick. I made another batch and weighed the dry ingredients and have included the measurements below. This should help to remove any issues caused by inconsistencies in measuring cup sizes or method of packing those cups.
Supplies
sticks (at least 5 inches long)
piping bag or sandwich bag with 1/2″ corner cut off
ice cube tray or deep candy mold, each cavity approximately 1 ounce
Ingredients
9 oz. milk chocolate (not chips)
7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (not chips)
1/2 c (1.5 oz) loosely packed cocoa
1 c (4.5 oz) loosely packed powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
mini marshmallows
In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, powdered sugar, and salt. Set aside
Chop chocolate into small pieces (no larger than about 3/4″ inch long) and combine in a glass bowl that is completely dry. Microwave in 30 second bursts on 50% power, stirring between each burst, ensuring that your spatula is also completely dry. Once chocolate is about 2/3 melted (there are still some chunks in the melted chocolate), stir until remaining chunks melt. This prevents the chocolate from getting too hot.
Pour melted chocolate into the mixing bowl containing the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Mixture will be very thick, similar to brownie batter. Spoon mixture into a piping bag (no coupler or tip is needed) or into a sandwich bag with the corner sliced off. Pipe the chocolate into an ice cube tray.
Once all chocolate has been piped, pound the tray lightly on the counter to eliminate air bubbles and to flatten the tops of the cubes if they are uneven. Working one cube at a time, insert a stick and place four mini marshmallows onto the top of the cube. Once all cubes are complete, set aside until cubes are completely dry. You can also place them in the fridge if you are in a hurry.
Once all cubes are dry, remove carefully from the molds. Wrap pretty and store in the cupboard.
To Use:
Heat up 1 cup milk (approximately 1 ounce of chocolate should be used for each cup of milk, so adjust based on the weight of your cube) and stir in. Cube will take several minutes to dissolve completely.
Yummy! And cute! We will have to try this while you are home!
Brilliant.
This sounds great! I’m just wondering why not chips–is it because of the fat content or something else? Also–you have a high proportion of milk chocolate… Do you think a dairy free version would work? Or would it not be melty enough?
I’ve heard that chips tend to be formulated to try to prevent melting, though I imagine you could still end up with a pretty tasty treat. The first time I made this, I attempted to use a higher percentage of darker chocolate, but the result was a very dark, almost bitter flavor when making the hot chocolate, so I swapped some of the dark chocolate out for a milk chocolate. I have not experimented making this dairy free… the stick is stirred into milk, not water, but I imagine it might do just fine in a soy or almond milk.
Having made the homemade powdered mix with chocolate chips (because the layers looked cute), I have some strong anecdotal evidence that supports the idea that the normal size chocolate chips don’t melt as easy as one would like. I usually end up with a glob of unmelted chocolate after lots and lots of stirring (with a whisk, even!).
Same here. I made white-chocolate covered strawberries using chips and melting on the stove and in the microwave. What I found after multiple attempts is that they only stay that nice gooey consistancy for a short window. Then they clump up and crumble, and there’s no saving them after that.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Is it wrong that I’m thinking of potential Christmas presents already?
Absolutely not. Maybe you won’t be up until 2 the night you make them if you think ahead, like I was!
Can golden yellow sugar be used in place of the loosely packed powdered sugar? Thanks!
Hmm, I’m not sure I’m familiar with golden yellow sugar… raw sugar? I would be concerned that using a heavier grain of sugar would leave the cubes with a grainy look… they’d probably still taste good though!
My understanding is that if you put granulated sugar through a food processor with a little corn starch you wind up with something very similar to powdered sugar. I’m sure there’s a conversion out there somewhere–I’d look for “vegan powdered sugar substitute”.
Love this idea! Where did you find your sticks?
Michael’s! Check the candy/cake decorating section, you can find lollipop-style white sticks or these ones, which are made from bamboo. I prefer the look and feel of the bamboo ones.
I was given the equivalent with a plastic spoon instead of the stick – I’d rather avoid plastic, but it made for the stirring implement built in.
Oh now that’s clever. I too try to steer clear of plastic when I can. I suppose you could buy some spoons with interesting handles (or regular ones, actually) and then your giftee would have a new, reusable spoon as well!
I’ve used bamboo spoons with this recipe.
What are your thoughts on using candy canes?
I think they would be SUPER cute, and probably would add a nice little mint flavor.
Ditto to CheezyK’s comments –> Dec 2012 – you are in my sights!!
Oh, I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one! :)
Having received two of these as a gift from Kristi this year, let me describe how they turn out in the cup: even in skim milk, they were thickly chocolate and melt-y smooth. It did not taste like dry mix, and I *may* have licked the stick before it had all melted. Yum. I wish I had another one right now…
I have one remaining!
this didnt work for me. way too many dry ingredients . way too thick.
The first batch I made came out too thick. I found that if I measured out the cocoa and powdered sugar lightly packed, it worked much better.
Now you understand why recipes need to be measured by weight not volume.
It is an important distinction. I’ve considered attempting to transfer ALL my recipes to weight measurement. I suppose I need a more accurate food scale first, mine is rather dinky and only questionably reliable.
was too thick for me too :( wasted 16 oz of chocolate!!
Oh no! My first batch was almost unbearably thick… loosely packing the cocoa and powdered sugar helped significantly. Sorry yours didn’t work out!
Could it really not be salvaged?? I think I would mix it as much as possible and then take it out by spoonfuls and use at home to make myself my own not-pretty hot chocolate globs or something. The ingredients are good, it couldn’t taste too bad. :)
where did you get the ice cube trays? awesome!
I found mine on Amazon, here. They’re silicone, so it’s relatively easy to get the blocks out as well.
You can get those silicon trays ad JoAnn’s and Michael’s too.
You could use chocolate chips just make sure the cocoa butter is a high content (do not use ghirradeli white chocolate chips, use toll house for white).
If you use the thin bars and chop them up the chocolate will melt faster and no lumps.
I can’t wait to make these. Valentine’s Day presents for the teachers and for all my co-workers.
(Try using coconut milk for an additional treat as well).
Is it possible to put dry milk in the recipe and just use hot water to melt the finished product into.
That’s an interesting question. To be honest, I haven’t tried it, though my one concern would be that the combination of chocolate, cocoa, and powdered sugar already borders on too thick, so water might have to be added to the mix in addition to dried milk to achieve a piping consistency. If you try it, please let us know how it works… I always have milk at home, but seldom at work in my freezer of an office, which is often where I really want a nice hot chocolate.
This sounds amazing! I was wondering what you meant by “Cocoa” in your recipe? is that like the unsweetened baking cocoa? I guess I am not knowledge enough to know the lingo. :)
Yes, unsweetened baking cocoa is the ticket. I used Hershey’s Special Dark.
Oh. My. God.
You are the mother of all things unholy, and I salute you.
I have never seen anything so ingenious and I/Must/Make/Now.
My microwave is terrible, attempting to melt chocolate in it is just asking for trouble. A trick I learned from a professional chocolatier is to put the chocolate in a pyrex bowl, cover the top with saran wrap and place that over a sauce pan with an inch of water in it. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, carefully remove saran wrap and stir.
I barely even have to pay attention to it and I’ve never burned the chocolate or caused it to seize (what happens when water gets added to chocolate). This may also solve the consistency problem, as you may be able to melt the sugar (possibly the cocoa as well) into the chocolate. Haven’t tried it though, so don’t take my word for it!
Hi! My sister made us these for Christmas, and they are DIVINE!!! I, uh, hate to admit, I, uh, did eat one just straight, no milk and hot chocolate… juse sneaking thefudge.t It’s SOOOOOOO good…. (guilt guilt…)
Don’t you feel guilty. You eat that block of chocolate with pride!
I made something similar by dipping big marshmallows in melted chocolate – but my stick was a mini candy cane and the peppermint added a nice flavor and melted perfectly – and gave gifts with packets of hot cocoa. I have to try this!
My friend and I both bake professionally. We decided to try this. Your proportions are completely off in this recipe. I used 16 ounces of chocolate, as per your recipe, but that wasn’t even enough to combine to all of the dry ingredients. I melted another 20 ounces of chocolate, reheated the ingredients which YOUR recipe calls for, and mixed them together. Finally, we were able to combine all of the ingredients – into a very hard ball much like when you make shortbread. I would have added yet another 16 ounces of chocolate, but I was beyond the point of caring. Both of us used a tablespoon measurer to form balls and then moulded them into the tray.
The only time any part of this recipe resembled anything like brownie batter was as the chocolate was melting.
Please adjust your recipe. The one above that thousands of people are trying to use, and are becoming frustrated in their futile attempts to do so, and are thinking it’s their fault when it’s not, does not work.
I was concerned and slightly panicked when I saw your comment… what if I made a typo when typing out the recipe? So I came straight home this evening to make another batch to double check. As written, I still came up with the same result and a successful batch of hot chocolate sticks.
To assist with anyone having trouble with consistency, I not only measured my dry ingredients this time in cups, but I also checked the weight in ounces on a kitchen scale and have included the results above. I suspect, however, that perhaps the issue here was due to the chocolate seizing and becoming too firm before mixing into the dry ingredients. Is it possible that the chocolate got too hot during the tempering process or that a drop of water made its way into the chocolate? That’s about the only thing I can think of that would have caused such a result. I’m sorry they didn’t work out! I hope, if you try these again, that you have more success!
It sounds like your attempt seized up. I’ve made 3 batches of these and I had one batch seize up and was unable to figure out the reason except that I had used a different brand of chocolate. I also had great results with the Scharffen Berger brand found in the baking isle along with their brand of natural cocoa powder (not dutch processed).
Kristi’s pictures of the mixture through the recipe process looked exactly like mine.
Also, thanks Kristi for adding the weight measurements, I’m beginning to do much of my baking using weight vs. volume measurements for consistent baking and results.
I followed their recipe exactly, and things went perfectly. Did you sift your dry ingrediens and completely melt your chocolate? It got stiff, but I was still able to ball up the mixture and put it in a piping bag, though I did let the bag sit in a warm water bath for about 5 minutes to soften it before I cut off the tip and started piping.
Kristi,
Now were talking. I am sold. Others should be inspired by your creative ability to help others see the way to do something awesome and share. I thank you for that.
In fact, words are not enough and a picture is only worth a thousand words…
So I made a video for you in honor or your contribution. I hope others will take the hint and follow your lead.
http://www.michaelhartzell.com/restaurant-marketing-ideas-blog/bid/81413/Hot-Chocolate-Sticks-The-Movie
Thanks again.
Mike
(Will be testing dark chocolate) :)
Oh My Gosh!!!! I am wanting to make them NOW. I can see many Christmas presents being taken care of by these. Just Awesome
Oh dear lord these need to be made! I am even thinking that a nice long Cinnamon stick would be fantastic and might add a nice touch of flavor to the final product! I will have to try this!
That is brilliant! I thought about using the straight part of a candy cane but though they would get too sticky… a cinnamon stick is a cool alternative.
I want to do this for Valentine’s Day – and my daughter had the great idea of putting little heart candies on it instead of marshmallows. So now we don’t have to wait till next year!
These sound delish. I have a friend’s birthday coming up & this will be perfect. Just a UK-based query for you though. When you say powdered sugar, do you know if that’s the same as icing sugar? thanks!
I just did some sleuthing, and it looks like icing sugar, powdered sugar, and confectioner’s sugar are all the same thing. So yes!
I just made a batch and they are sitting pretty in the fridge right now. These look absolutely adorable and I can’t wait to give them to my friends. It doesn’t even have to be gift for a special occasion. Who wouldn’t love a stick of hot chocolate in these cold winter months? (:
p.s. I couldn’t stop myself from licking the entire bowl after my batch was finished. So…much…chocolate…
I’m so glad they turned out for you! I just made another batch a couple nights ago… now I just need to get to the store to buy some milk!
I am so proud of you for not wasting those “expensive” ingredients clinglng to the bowl!
So I just made a batch of these, my girls was to give them as Valentine’s, and I don’t know what I did wrong. I measured with the food scale, melting the chocolate in the microwave, and I couldn’t even pipe them! The bag was too hot, and it was way tooo thick!
I don’t know what I did. I was extremely careful about not allowing water to come in contact with the chocolate.
I used Hershey’s chocolate bars maybe that would make a difference? HELP! Please!
Oh no! Let’s see what we can figure out. First, I don’t know how using Hershey chocolate affects the process as I have not used it. A regular Hershey contains 11% cacao, the chocolates I used contain 41% and 62% (milk & dark), so that difference may have affected the melting of the chocolate. Not being in your kitchen with you, it’s difficult to know exactly what happened, but my suspicion is that the chocolate became too hot, which can cause it to seize in a similar way as when chocolate comes in contact with water. I could hardly feel the temperature of the chocolate through my piping bag. And while the chocolate was thick, yes, it was also definitely pipe-able. My suggestion, if you try them again (I hope you do!) is to perhaps reduce the microwave intervals to 15 or 20 seconds (on 50% power) to ensure the chocolate doesn’t get too hot. Stir between each, even if it seems silly. Then, when the chocolate is about 2/3 melted, stop heating and stir. The residual heat from the surrounding chocolate and the container should melt it the rest of the way. Then, maybe try taking out a tablespoon of each dry ingredient before combining, just to make sure. You can always add them back in once you make sure you don’t get it too thick.
I do hope they work out for you!! Let me know if any of this helps.
I just made a batch of these for my girlfriend for a valentine’s gift, with stirring sticks that had little hearts on them.
I found that the mixture IS very stiff when piping (rather like trying to pipe cookie dough), and afterwards to get it settled into the ice cube trays I did a similar softening where I did 30 second bursts in the microwave on 50% power. A few of those settled the chocolate and smoothed out the top, then I put in the sticks and marshmellows.
A note, though; I ended up using 8 oz of semisweet chocolate, because I just had dry powder that wouldn’t mix in, that extra bit of chocolate was a big help.
Oh, and also; I measured out my dry ingredients spooning them into a measuring cup, and then I sifted them into the mixing bowl which got everything nicely blended and light. I highly recommend it.
Sorry to be posting so much, but I just wanted to share this;
http://www.dollartree.com/Valentine-s-Heart-Picks/p307129/index.pro
The sticks I used were actually ‘heart picks’, which are wooden sticks for flower arranging. I cut about an inch off each one to shorten them, and they’re now the perfect length for stirring sticks.
Oooh these are cute! I’m glad you had success with your batch, though with a couple of little mods it sounds like!
I made these this weekend using dark chocolate chips, and it worked just fine! No need to worry about chips causing unmelted globs in your milk. I used 2/3 dark chocolate and 1/3 semi-sweet to equal 16 oz of chocolate chips.
Thanks for the recipe! I did notice that it wasn’t “brownie batter consistency” but I just scooped it with a spoon and pressed into the molds instead of piping.
Glad it worked out for you!
This is kind of a weird question…I want to make these for Valentines Day. Would it be possible to use red/pink melting chocolate, and dipped the frozen cubes in them so they are lightly coated, then freeze them again? Or would that just mess up the appearance and flavor?
Not a weird question at all. I think that would be super cute! You’d want to make sure the sticks are completely dry before re-dipping them. Then, I think I would let them dry on waxed paper rather than freeze them.
What brand of chocolate do you use???
Scharffen Berger. For the dark, Iuse their 62% Dark Chocolate, and for the milk, I use their 41% Extra Milk Chocolate. I have yet to be steered wrong by this brand.
I’ve been wanting to try these since I saw them, so I just wanted to weigh in with my experience! I had to use milk chocolate chips because I could not find milk chocolate baking squares anywhere (I went to three stores!)- did anyone else have that experience? Anyway, they still melted fine, so that was good. I was also doubling this, as I was making it for work.
Anyway, I think maybe doubling the dry ingredients might have been too much? It was really dry and hard to mix, so I ended up just melting and adding some more chocolate until I got the consistency I wanted. Still a bit thicker than brownie batter, but manageable. They’re sitting on the counter in the pan now, waiting to be tied into little cellophane bags and decorated for Valentine’s Day!
I was wondering how long you leave them sitting out for?
Also, thanks for posting this, what a great gift idea!!
Thanks for this! The proportions are perfect, I’ve made this same thing but with just dark chocolate but there were very unappetizing chocolate specks floating around in the milk and though it tasted fine, it just wasn’t very pretty. This time I made it exactly the way you do and it is really good. I didn’t have problem with the mixture being too thick and I don’t know why some people were complaining about the proportions being off. I spooned the cocoa powder and powdered sugar into measuring cups before sifting and then weighed on a kitchen scale after sifting and it was exactly as you have written in your recipe. Thanks again!
These look fantastic! I was just wondering, how long do you think they would last in the cupboard for? The same life span as the chocolate you use?
Well, I made them for the first time in December, and I still have a couple that are just fine. I would say the lifespan of the chocolate would be a good barometer to go by.
Hi Kristi, thank you so much for posting this recipe. I’ve had it bookmarked for awhile and now plan to use it to make favors for my fall wedding! One question though- did you put yours in the refrigerator while you waited for them to harden, or just leave at room temp? I couldn’t quite tell from your write-up and didn’t see it mentioned in the comments. Please let me know!
Hi Amy! My first batch I put in the fridge just to speed things up, the second batch I left out on the counter. Both hardened just fine. I would say if you aren’t pressed for time, leave them out as cooling chocolate can sometimes have unpredictable effects. It won’t take more than a couple of hours either way. I hope you enjoy them!
Thank you! I made these today and followed your recipe exactly and they turned out beautifully. The only thing I can add is that I used paper sticks, and after swirling them in the hot milk waiting for the chocolate to melt the paper puffed up from the moisture and began to separate, sort of beginning to flake off. When I make them next I’m going to try spoons.
Hi~~I came by your blog and am so tempted to try this! One question though, would it make a difference if I pour the dry ingredients INTO the chocolate batch instead of the other way around? I thought perhaps then we may be able to gauge if the dry ingredients are too much. Please do give a feedback. Would love to start it this weekend! :)
Miki, you could definitely try that. Just remember it will get rather thick, so don’t stop pouring too soon!
I seriously love you. Will you marry me?
Questions: how long can HCOAS be stored for?
What do you think is the optimal microwave time for a standard cup of milk? 1m 50sec? I always manage to overflow!
If you added alcohol to the chocolate, what would you recommend?
Thank you!
Dawn, I still have a couple in my cabinet, and they look fine to me. I would store them as long as you would store any chocolate, which in my house, is never very long before I use it! As for the milk, I think it really depends on your microwave. If you’re having problems with it overflowing, try heating it at 7 power instead of full. And alcohol? I’m not a big user of alcohol myself, but I imagine any alcohol that would be good in a truffle would be good in these…
I just want to say that besides these sticks been delicious, they have become my money spinner. I have been unfortunate to find myself unemployed twice in 1 year and making these has got me by. As one of the previous posts instead of the sticks I use a wooden spoon (kind of like an ice cream stick)
Glad to hear they’re getting you through!
I’ve been looking for a good hot chocolate on a stick recipe! Since there’s no milk in there (king Arthur has heavy cream and condensed milk), does that mean they have a longer shelf or freezer life? I want to make about 200 for favors and thought this would be much cheaper to make than buy! I would need to know how far in advance I can make them
I made some of these for my girlfriend for valentine’s day, about 10 days before the holiday. Over a month later, she still had a few that were good, so I’d say 5 in a cool, dark place (airtight, though) wouldn’t be a problem.
I’ll warn you though, piping, decorating, and storing just 30 of these took me about 4 hours, so 200 will take… a while.
I love your style!
WOW! I am most definitely making these, and saving this blog into my favorites!! Looks amazing. And yum.