Chocolate – The consistency of the hot chocolate is off, what do I do

chocolatedrinksmelting-chocolate

I've made hot chocolate before however it's only ever been the instant powdered variant by Cadbury's, however today I bought some hot chocolate by "Charbonnel et Walker", I don't know if anyone knows about this drinking chocolate but it isn't powdered instead it's comprised of really fine and small flakes of chocolate and you're meant to mix them with the milk I guess? I did so but the consistency of the hot chocolate was off; that is to say that although the flakes melted a little they congealed/massed on the surface of the hot milk rather than assimilate and no matter how much I stirred they'd still rise back to the top.

My steps were: I microwaved some full fat milk till it was a hot, mixed the recommended amount of chocolate flakes in and some brown sugar, gave it a good stir and put it back in the microwave.

I've probably made this wrong, was I meant to make this in a sauce pan?
Could anyone help me with this?
Thank you.

Best Answer

At Marriott hotel, where I worked for a while, we used similar flakes. Our technique was to add a good splash of boiling water first, incorporate the chocolate flakes by mixing it into a smooth paste (more or less), and only then add hot milk. I guess the idea is that it is much more of a challenge to incorporate a small amount of solid into a large amount of liquid, however if you turn that solid into a paste first, its almost like your mixing two liquids. You'll find that the same technique is used for making a bachamel sauce. For convenience sake, try using a small amount of hot milk, instead of water. Also, having your liquid boiling might help, which is hard to achieve in a microwave. e.g. when making a classic chocolate sauce which contains butter and cream, the chocolate is only fully dissolved when the liquid is boiled.