Home-made Chocolate

My fondest memories of going to my granny’s house in Pune have been of the time when she would be be making this chocolate and the resulting sweet aroma that would fill up the entire house. Her sari would smell of the cocoa and cream for an entire day and I would go and hug her several times just to feel the scent of that warm chocolate.

This one here, is her original recipe, true to the last bit and believe it or not, has just 4 simplest ingredients. None of the fancy-shmancy oven or olive oil or that baking soda blah blah.. Just some fresh white cream, milk powder , cocoa powder and sugar. And cooking it in a pan on the stove top. Easy and chocolaty. Need i say more??

Serves : A group of people

Prep time : 10 mins

Let-it-sit time : 1 hour

Cooking time : 15 mins

Measurements :

The ingredients here are collected in multiples of one measuring unit. For instance, if you use a small cup, then all the ingredients are in multiples measured in the same cup. I took a small stainless steel bowl (vati) measuring about 2 tablespoons. For simplicity, let us call it a scoop. So accordingly you will need :

• 1 scoop cocoa powder
• 3 scoops milk powder
• 4 scoops of fresh cream (malai)
• Sugar : 2 scoops powdered and 6 scoops granulated (normal) sugar

Mix the dry ingredients together, namely the cocoa powder, milk powder, and the granulated sugar, mix well to break any lumps. The powdered sugar will be used later-on. Add the full cream and combine all of it into a homogenous mixture.

If it feels very dry, add a tablespoon of milk and mix well. Let it sit for an hour , till almost all sugar granules dissolve.

After an hour, start cooking the mixture and let it boil on medium high flame. Now that’s when you need to stir it continuously, but it is not difficult as the sweet smell of the cocoa will ensure you are close to the stove. 🙂 After about 7-8 minutes (depending on your pan and the gas flame), the mixture will look like this :

Meanwhile, slightly grease a dish with some ghee, and keep it aside.

Once the mixture starts separating from the sides of the pan, reduce the heat to very low, add the two scoops of powdered sugar and mix vigorously to combine.

Take it off the heat and spread it evenly on the greased dish. Tip : Use the bottom of a bowl to make the surface of the chocolate plain.

Now Cut it into square pieces when it is still warm.

Congratulations on made-at-home-from-scratch chocolates! In our Bombaiyya English, Enjoy maadi!

R