Recipe | Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

 Way back in January, I posted about a handmade birthday box I made for my best friend, (check it out HERE) and I included some home-made Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. I promised to post the recipe on here, and its taken me till April to do so! I'm such a good blogger, clearly. But, seeing as its still hardly summer weather I think hot chocolate is still called for. :)

Firstly ingredients wise you need -

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1/3 tablespoons sea salt
1 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I realise I used dark - I can't read okay..)
10oz dark chocolate

The recipe I used is American, hence the measurements being in cups but there are lots of conversion tables on the interweb. Or if you're lucky enough to have measuring cups like me, you're winning!

Firstly line a rimmed (very important!) baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Then you need to make the caramel, prepare for really pretty swirly colours and an amazing smell! Heat the sugar in a large pan over a medium heat, without stirring. Be patient with it and when the sugar begins to melt, slowly swirl the pan around to melt it without burning. Keep your eye on the pan, as it can burn in an instant! As soon as its melted to a deep amber colour remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the vanilla. It will spit, so wear an apron just in case! Whisk the caramel until smooth again and immediately pour onto the lined baking tray. You then leave it  to cool for around an hour and the hard part is over!

If you find that some caramel gets stuck to your pan, pour in some water and put it over a gentle heat. Once its warmed a little, the caramel should come off easily and melt in to the water meaning you can just pour it away and be left with a shiny pan. :)

Once its completely cooled, you need to snap it all into tiny pieces. I found the best way to do it was to jab at it with a knife - its quite a good stress reliever actually! You then need to turn a food processor on, and while running feed the caramel pieces in so they are ground into a fine powder. The food processor starts to ooze a caramel smoke at this point and makes a god awful racket, so you might want to warn anyone in the vicinity beforehand. Once its completely pulverised, it should look a bit like this:

You then need to add the rest of the ingredients, aside from the chocolate, to the food processor and whizz until smooth. Finally, add the chocolate to the mix and process until the mixture is a fine powder.

And, voila! You've made your own salted caramel hot chocolate powder! Which sounds mega impressive, but as you've just witnessed, is ridiculously easy! I hope you enjoy it :) The original recipe states to use three tablespoons mixed with milk - but I find that wayyy too much. So, I'd say its just up to personal preference. Also, side note - this recipe makes LOADS. Like LOADS. So make sure you have enough jars :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Source: Adapted from Seeded At The Table.