Kylee's Kitchen: Hot chocolate board

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Hot chocolate board

The evolution of the charcuterie board into other snacking boards has been a very popular trend in 2020. We saw the "fry board" and the "pancake board" earlier this year. And now we're seeing a more seasonal spin on the trend—the hot chocolate board. So what is it? Essentially, it's a pretty way to display all the fixings for hot chocolate so family and friends can easily customize their drinks.

It seems easy enough, but it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to start and what to get. So I'm going to break it all down for you.

In my opinion, when building a hot chocolate board, there are four essential categories of products necessary for a hot chocolate board: sprinkles, stirrers, cookies, and marshmallows.

The first thing I placed on the board was sprinkles. I put three small bowls down the center.

Stirrers come next. They are exactly what they sound like—anything you can use to stir your drink. I dipped compostable spoons and pretzel rods in white and dark chocolate, and I added crushed peppermint and sprinkles to make them appear more festive. You could use anything as simple as a candy cane or cinnamon sticks. I put the stirrers in separate cups and arranged them in a zigzag pattern around the sprinkles. Putting them in cups clears up space and adds height and dimension to your board.

Next is my favorite part—the cookies! I like a wide variety of cookies, but they all had one thing in common—they were crunchy. The purpose of the cookies is to dunk them in hot chocolate, and soft, chewy cookies don't dunk well. The cookies take up the most space on the board, and I just arranged them around the stirrers.

The marshmallows went on the board last because they're so light they can easily stack on top of the cookies without it looking awkward. I used them to fill in the gaps around the sprinkles in the center. I found peppermint marshmallows at Target, so I used those in addition to regular marshmallows. I also saw chocolate marshmallows available at Meijer. And of course, you can make your own marshmallows if you want.

As for the hot chocolate, my favorite recipe is just three ingredients: milk, dark chocolate, and vanilla extract. The ratio of milk to chocolate is 4:1, so 4 cups milk for every 1 cup of chocolate. All you do is heat the milk (any kind you want) until just before boiling (about 170 degrees), and then stir in the dark chocolate and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Serve once the chocolate is melted. If possible, I recommend keeping the hot chocolate in a slow cooker next to the board on the warm setting so the hot chocolate will stay warm when people get seconds!