This Trick Will Use Up Your Halloween Treats and Doesn’t Involve Baking or Schlepping
So, necessity is the mother of invention, right? And you are staring at an entire candy aisle’s worth of leftover Halloween sugar—which, let’s be honest, will either turn into “Christmas candy” or the worst stomach ache your kid has ever had. And you are definitely not making some kind of cookie, bar, cake, or rice crispy treat to get rid of the sugar by adding more sugar to it. What to do?
In my house, it sits high on a shelf in the pantry until one cold February night when you really, really want hot chocolate and your partner (who has never in his life followed one culinary rule ever) hands you a cup of the thickest, richest hot chocolate ever and says, “This may be bad, I have no idea.”
It was far from bad; in fact, it was the best thing he has ever made for me. And it was stupid easy and obvious, especially if you have ever had Mexican or European hot chocolate—also called drinking chocolate. All he did was melt chocolate kisses in some milk BECAUSE IT WAS ALL WE HAD, DUH and hit it with the immersion blender because, he’s not afraid of kitchen tools (he actively seeks them out as he does saws and wrenches).
So yeah, plain chocolate bars, kisses, coins or what have you melted in milk and blended with an immersion blender, that’s it. I do not exaggerate when I say this will be life-changing hot chocolate, not that thin, milky kind you get with the powder.
Here is a basic formula:
- 8 ounces (one mug) of milk (I imagine it would work with any kind of milk)
- ¼ cup-ish chocolate candy of your choice (please someone use a Reese’s and tell me how it went)
Add milk to a heavy bottomed saucepan; add as many cups as you are going to serve and heat over medium until you start to see wisps of smoke. Add the candy and stir until it melts and the mixture is just scalding. Take your pan off the heat and hit the mixture with an immersion blender.
Pour. Serve. Receive the adoration you deserve and the clutter-free pantry you desire.