Recipes
My sober October
Having decided to join in with this year’s sober October, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, I am currently one week into total abstention from alcohol. I’ve never been much of a joiner-inner of things, so I’m doing it quietly; knowing full well that I am terrible at asking people to do things, instead of raising sponsorship I decided I would just donate the money that I would otherwise have spent on booze to the charity.
So far, it has been hard and not hard. Battling the instinctive urge to have a glass of wine in my hand at a pub or restaurant is strange. Your willpower does a funny little back and forth dance with itself, which goes on for so long and so often that one week of not drinking feels like a month already. Every single time I walk into somewhere with a wine list, or cocktails, or I’m just out of the house later than 6pm, my habit response is telling me something is missing. Staying in is much easier, which is odd as I drink more often at home than I do anywhere else. But after the initial decision not to drink, you kind of forget about it. Sometimes I catch myself running a mental checklist when I wake up after having been out: do I feel groggy, or have a headache? It’s nice to remember that of course you don’t, because you only had sparkling water last night. Like waking up, semi-resigning yourself to getting out of bed and then remembering it’s your day off and you don’t have to. Will it change my drinking habits when November comes around? I hope I will drink less instinctively and think more about whether I really want that glass of wine or not, whether it’s just the combination of a particular time and a particular place or whether I’m actually making a choice. We’ll see.
So, this post is for anyone else joining in (quietly or loudly) with the sober challenge: it’s suddenly cold and wet outside, winter is threatening and you don’t fancy nursing a glass of apple juice in the pub. I highly recommend staying in with a good book, a huge mug of hot chocolate and your new kitten (PS: this is Iggy.)
Two mugs of hot chocolate
The first method here is the one we use in the cafe; a chocolate ganache base combined with hot milk to make a rich, dark hot chocolate. It’s still good at home even though you can’t achieve the silky texture of milk without a steam wand. Any spare ganache can be refrigerated for up to a week and used to make more hot chocolate.
The second hot chocolate is free from both dairy and refined sugar. I got the recipe for a spiced coconut milk hot chocolate from Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley’s book, ‘The Art of Eating Well’. The coconut milk makes it incredibly thick and creamy but you can also use almond milk for a less intense result, or if you don’t like coconut (see my earlier post about almond milk here: https://millkitchenstories.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/homemade-nut-milk-a-green-smoothie/)
Ganache hot chocolate
For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate of your choice, chopped up
200ml double cream
Plus about 200ml milk per mug
Warm the cream until just below boiling point – it should be steaming but not bubbling. You need it to be hot enough to melt the chocolate, but not too hot or the mixture will split. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth.
For each mug of chocolate, use an ice cream scoop of ganache. This quantity should make about 4 mugs worth. The best way to do this is in a microwave: pour milk over the ganache to just about fill the mug. Microwave for 30 seconds to one minute, stir, and then heat for longer if needed. If you don’t have a microwave you can heat the milk in a pan and then pour it on, but it is more likely to develop a grainy texture.
Spiced coconut milk hot chocolate
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk (use a good one – I use Waitrose organic as it doesn’t contain artificial thickeners)
3 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp coconut sugar or maple syrup
1tsp cinnamon
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
This should make two large mugs. Melt everything together in a pan and warm it through. Adjust the sweetness and spice level as desired.
Adapted from ‘The Art of Eating Well’ by Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, Ebury Press, 2014
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