Although it’s still warm in my area, I always feel the need to start making Fall and Winter recipes this time of year. It’s just ingrained in me. When I came across this Earl Grey Hot Chocolate I knew I had to give it a try. I love Earl Grey tea, and we always have some in the house. But mixing it into hot chocolate? Now that sounded interesting!
Thick, rich, and decadent, you’ll love each delicious sip of this Earl Grey hot chocolate.
The Ingredients
As I mentioned, I had the Earl Grey teabags or sachets as this recipe calls them. I also had sugar and salt and some leftover heavy cream. That meant all I had to buy was some milk and dark chocolate. Easy!
Unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the chocolate’s packaging. It was only 3.5 ounces, and this recipe calls for 5 ounces. I didn’t realize this until I was standing at the counter with a saucepan of milk and cream warming on the stove. Doh!
The Process
Making this Earl Grey Hot Chocolate recipe was simple, but I managed to mess it up. And it was not the recipe’s fault. Lack of sleep and lots of stress might have had something to do with it. I considered re-making it, but I decided not to. I didn’t have time, and I hoped someone could learn from my mistakes.
Mistake 1: Not Enough Dark Chocolate
So I have the milk and heavy cream warming over relatively low heat on the stove. It’s only then that I realize I need more dark chocolate, and I panic a little. Then I do what I always do in these situations and search for a dark chocolate substitute.
I didn’t have time to properly research this (tick tock), so I took the first suggestion of using 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder per ounce of chocolate. I missed the part about adding extra sugar and butter. Not that I would have added butter, but the sugar would have been a good idea.
Still, I soldiered on, steeping the tea bags in the warmed milk, grating a little chocolate for the garnish, and finishing up the rest of the prep work. The tea was still steeping, so I moved on to the cream topping. And my second mistake.
Mistake 2: Over-Whipping the Cream
I don’t have a milk frother, but the recipe notes said an immersion blender could be used instead. Great–I have one!
All I had to do was mix the remaining cream with some sugar for a few seconds, and I would have the topping. Sounds easy enough, but I overdid it. Maybe the immersion blender was too powerful? I honestly don’t know since I have never used a milk frother. It’s impossible for me to compare the two.
I ended up with something more like whipped cream than a foam topping. I hoped it would lose some cohesion while I finished the hot chocolate, but it didn’t. It still worked when I spooned it onto the finished hot chocolate, though.
Finishing Up
The tea finished steeping a few minutes later, and I removed the bags and put the pan back on the heat. Then I added the chocolate, sugar, and salt along with about 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
The chocolate melted in nicely, but the cocoa powder created tiny little clumps. I decided to remove the bits of powder by straining it through a fine mesh strainer as I poured it into the mugs. It worked pretty well.
Then I spooned in the whipped cream topping and sprinkled on some of the grated chocolate. The whole process took me 24 minutes versus the 18 listed.
