Tote Tante

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 1.5 to 2 litre saucepan
• •Balloon whisk
• •Hand mixer or whisk for cream
• •4 tall heatproof cups or Pharisäer cups

Instructions

1. 1

   Whip the cream

   Whip the cold cream to soft peaks and keep it cold. Soft cream floats and seals the cup; stiff cream sits like a lump and makes you drink around it, which is not the point.

2. 2

   Bloom the cocoa

   Put the cocoa, sugar, salt, and 100ml of the milk in a saucepan and whisk to a smooth paste before the rest of the milk goes in. Cocoa powder clumps if it is drowned all at once; a paste gives you a clean, dark base without specks.

3. 3

   Warm it low

   Whisk in the remaining milk and warm it over medium-low heat until it is hot and glossy, but never boiling. Runter mit der Temperatur. Milk scorches at the bottom before it complains at the top, and boiled chocolate turns dull and grainy.

   Use the heaviest small saucepan you have. Thin metal gives you hot spots, and hot spots are where milk catches.
4. 4

   Melt the chocolate

   Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the chopped chocolate until the cocoa is smooth. Off the heat, the chocolate melts into the milk instead of tightening from a hard boil; that is the difference between silk and grit.

5. 5

   Add the rum

   Stir the rum into the hot cocoa after the chocolate has melted, then taste for sugar. Rum goes in off the boil because boiling drives off the alcohol and leaves only a harsh edge. Wuerzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, the final balance comes at the end.

6. 6

   Cap with cream

   Pour into warmed mugs or tall Pharisäer cups, spoon the cold whipped cream over the surface, and dust lightly with cocoa or grated chocolate. Do not stir. You drink through the cream into the rum-warmed cocoa, and the cap keeps the aroma where it belongs.

Chef Tips

• •Use real cocoa and chopped dark chocolate. Packet drinking chocolate is mostly sugar and powdery milk, and it gives you a sweet cup with no backbone. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from the packet either.
• •Keep the heat low once the milk is in the pan. A skin on top and a caught bottom tell you the pan was too hot; low heat and a whisk are cheaper than rescuing burnt milk.
• •Choose a dark rum with weight, not a sharp white rum. The drink needs molasses warmth against bitter cocoa, not raw alcohol biting through the cream.
• •Warm the cups with hot water, then empty them before filling. The drink is served in small cups and sipped slowly, so a cold cup steals heat before anyone gets to the table.
• •For a lighter cup, use 120ml rum for four servings instead of 160ml. Do not replace it with rum essence. That bottle belongs nowhere near the stove.

Advance Preparation

• •The cream can be whipped up to 2 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator; whisk it briefly before serving if it loosens.
• •The cocoa base can be made without rum up to 1 day ahead and chilled. Rewarm it gently, whisking often, then add the rum off the heat so the alcohol stays in the cup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 330g)