Ok, you foodies. Here's a question for ya. Have you ever had a recipe that was just bad? That you followed to the letter and it was just......yucky? Well, I had one of those tonight.
Every Wednesday, the AR Democrat-Gazette publishes its Food Section. Most of the time I pay no attention to the main article. It's usually something I don't care for. Well, this week's was all about Hot Chocolate! Or hot cocoa, as the case may be.
One of the recipes they published was for something called "Hot Chocolate Elixir". Yummmm, I thought. The notes even said it was so substantial, you could serve it for dessert.
I won't retype the whole recipe. I'll just hit the highlights.
You start by making a ganache with bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream.
While that is making its way to a boil, you start another pot with 2 cups whole milk, 1/2 cup cream, and 2 tablespoons cocoa. (Yes, TABLE spoons)
After this second pot comes to a boil, you remove it from the heat and stir in the ganache and a little vanilla.
And voila! You have..........
THE MOST DISGUSTING STUFF KNOWN TO MAN!!!!!!!
Did anyone notice what is missing? I don't know if they left off an ingredient or if it's just not supposed to be in there, but there's NO SUGAR in the entire thing! Now class, does anyone know what happens when you combine cocoa, BITTERsweet chocolate, and plain cream without sugar? You get two girls going, "Mommy, this isn't yummy" and one mother forcefully spitting her sip back into her cup. (puh puh!)
So, is it supposed to taste this way? I followed the recipe to the letter. If it's supposed to be this way, then I'm with Jim when he asked, "Who on earth would drink this stuff?"
Salvaging the Sludge
As Mary Poppins sang, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down..." We added some sugar to each of our cups. That helped. Then, not wanting to waste 2 cups of heavy cream, whole milk, and chocolate, I added 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar to the pot and put it back on the stove. I let it get hot so the sugar could dissolve. That helped TREMENDOUSLY! It now tastes like hot fudge sauce or chocolate sauce you'd have on a sundae.
I think tomorrow I'll have it over some ice cream. I could even heat some up in some milk and have my "hot chocolate" that I was after. I could eat it cold with a spoon as a dessert. Whatever I decide, I know I will NEVER have it the way it was intended.
4 comments:
Boy, I'm afraid I saw that coming. I read "You start by making a ganache with bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream," and thought, "Uh-oh. There isn't going to be sugar in this."
I thought there had to be a typo in there, especially considering the article starts with, "Every basic hot chocolate or hot cocoa recipe starts with same ingredients — chocolate or cocoa, sugar, milk and usually vanilla." Hello? Sugar. It's the second thing you list. So I went to Amazon to look up the book and, I'll be, no sugar in the original recipe!
Maybe this was one that nobody bothered testing first.
I thought about writing a letter to the editor asking if they forgot an ingredient. But then I thought I would look foolish if they're like "It's an elixir! What did she expect?"
I have to admit I didn't notice there was no sugar listed until I was waiting on everything to boil. Then, I got very nervous. Sure enough, it was NASTY!
We had the doctored version today over vanilla ice cream. YUM!
i think you could still write a letter to the editor & submit your "doctored" version with it!
there might be other people who tried the recipe as well, but gave up on it when it didn't taste good.
Oh, definitely write to the editor. I make cocoa with as little sugar possible, but it's a necessary ingredient! So's a pinch of salt.
I can't imagine *drinking* a ganache. Over ice cream or cake is definitely the way to go.
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