Edible Christmas Gifts - Hot Chocolate Sticks

With just a week and a bit to go until Christmas, it is highly likely that, for some of you, present-based panic has set in. If you read our blog a few weeks ago, you may have got some lovely vanilla extract ready, but if you fancy something a little more traditional, we’ve got the perfect edible gift for you – Hot Chocolate sticks.

These delightful little sweet treats are perfect for the Christmas season – not only are they a delicious and thoughtful gift, they are also a wonderful warming treat to enjoy during a long cold January, post-Christmas.

This recipe can be done in one of two ways – one which can be made with normal bars of chocolate, which you can get from your local supermarket, but is best done with a blender, and one for which you don’t need a blender which is made with cacao butter and raw cocoa powder.

Recipe 1

Ingredients

• 50g Cocoa butter - 1kg is about £15
• 100g Raw cacao powder - 1kg is about £13 BUT you can make it with normal cocoa powder
• 1 can (normally 397g) Condensed milk
• Double cream
• Icing sugar, to sweeten, to taste

Method

• Weigh out all your ingredients
• Put your cocoa butter in a bain marie (a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water)
• Add the cocoa powder.
• Mix until smooth.
• Add the cream and continue to mix.
• Add the condensed milk and keep mixing.
• Taste, and add icing sugar if you want it to be sweeter.
• Coat the inside of your moulds with coconut oil or some other mild-tasting oil.
• Pour the mix into moulds and allow to cool in the fridge for 1 hour
• Then add the sticks.
• Allow to cool entirely in the fridge overnight.
• Remove from moulds, wrap in cellophane.

Top Tip – add some fun extras like spices - how about powdered cinnamon to make it Christmassy?! – or little marshmallows, like we've done below.

Recipe 2

Ingredients

• 600g of bar chocolate (dark, milk, or white) – you could do a mix
• 375g condensed milk
• 125ml Double Cream

Method

• Pour condensed milk and double cream into a pan, mix a bit then heat it GENTLY on medium heat until it starts to simmer
• Make sure it doesn’t stick – keep stirring it.
• Blitz up your chocolate in a blender or – if you don’t have a blender – just chop/bash it up as small as possible. You are aiming for a powder-like consistency if you can so it will melt as quickly as possible.
• Turn the temperature right down on your cream and condensed milk mixture.
• Pour your blitzed up chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and add in your cream and condensed milk mixture.
• Mix thoroughly, making sure there are no lumps.
• Pour into moulds – or into a normal deep baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper, to be cut into squares later.
• Pop your moulds or tray in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
• After 4 hours, pop in your sticks, then put back in the fridge overnight.

Top Tip – Use three different kinds of chocolate, split your cream and condensed mixture into three, and make different coloured layers, like we've done below – or you could make swirly patterns in it. It’s up to you!

To use either of these lovely chocolate sticks, all you need to do is heat up a cup of milk and swirl the stick through it for the perfect wintry hot chocolate. (Or, don’t bother with the sticks at all, and just enjoy it as a delicious, rich pudding!) Have fun!