Going to City Bakery for their hot chocolate (best in the city, for sure) and famous pretzel croissants is one of my favorite winter activities. I decided to try to replicate their top-secret chocolate recipe this morning—here’s the recipe I found came the closest. I think the key to getting that exceptionally rich, creamy texture is using the very best chocolate you can find. From Pierre Herme:
Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup bottled still water
1/4 cup (generous) superfine granulated sugar
1 100-gm bar (3-1/2 ounces) dark bittersweet chocolate, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, or Lindt (see note, below), finely sliced with a serrated bread knife
1/4 cup (1 ounce or 28 gm) cocoa powder, loosely packed, preferably Valrhona
Instructions:
In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together the milk, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the chopped chocolate and the cocoa and bring to a boil again, whisking until the chocolate and cocoa are dissolved and the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to very low.
Blend for 5 minutes with an immersion mixer or whirl the hot chocolate in a standard blender for half a minute, until thick and foamy.
Yield: Four 6-ounce cups of hot chocolate.
Note: I use a dark chocolate containing close to 70 percent cocoa, though Lindt bittersweet also works just fine. The Mayans and the Aztecs considered the froth the best part. Today, five minutes with an immersion mixer or a blender accomplishes what a half hour of beating did long ago.
