French hot chocolate is thick, rich hot chocolate made from real chocolate melted into a little milk, sometimes with a splash of cream, so it pours like velvet instead of running thin like a mug of cocoa. Italian hot chocolate (cioccolata calda) is thicker still, thick enough to eat with a spoon, and some recipes, ours included, thicken it with a little cornstarch.
We make ours with Alma Cacao, pure cacao with nothing added, so you decide how sweet it gets. For a bigger, milkier everyday mug, see our cacao hot chocolate recipe.
French vs Italian hot chocolate at a glance
| Per serving | French (chocolat chaud) | Italian (cioccolata calda) |
|---|---|---|
| Cacao | 20 g | 20 g |
| Liquid | 6 tablespoons milk and 2 tablespoons cream | ½ cup (4 oz) milk |
| Thickener | None | 1 teaspoon cornstarch |
| Heat | About 180°F (82°C), never boiling | A gentle bubble for about 1 minute |
| Texture | Silky and pourable, for sipping | Thick enough to coat a spoon |
Using a chocolate bar? Swap the 20 g of cacao and the sugar for about 1 oz (28 g) of 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped, and taste before sweetening.
French hot chocolate recipe (chocolat chaud)
Makes 1 small cup (about 4 oz) in about 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 20 g cacao pieces (about 2 tablespoons): Alma Cacao or another 100% cacao paste
- 2 tablespoons (1 oz, 30 ml) heavy cream, or 2 more tablespoons of milk
- 6 tablespoons (3 oz, 90 ml) whole milk
- 2 to 3 teaspoons sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of fine salt
Steps
- Start with the cream. Warm the cream (or 2 tablespoons of the milk) in a small saucepan over low heat until it just begins to steam, then stir in the cacao pieces until they melt into a thick, glossy chocolate cream.
- Loosen it with milk. Pour in the milk a little at a time, whisking after each pour to keep it smooth. Add 2 teaspoons of the sugar and the salt.
- Bring it to a steam. Raise the heat a notch and keep whisking until the surface steams and turns glossy, about 180°F (82°C); take it off before bubbles break through.
- Finish. For a thicker cup, hold it at a bare steam a few minutes longer, whisking now and then. Off the heat, stir in the vanilla and, if you like, the last teaspoon of sugar. Pour into a warmed cup.
Italian hot chocolate recipe (cioccolata calda)
Makes 1 small cup (about 4 oz) in about 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 20 g cacao pieces (about 2 tablespoons)
- ½ cup (4 oz, 120 ml) whole milk or oat milk, divided
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch, or up to 1½ teaspoons for an even thicker cup
- 2 to 3 teaspoons sugar
- A pinch of fine salt
Steps
- Mix the starch into cold milk. In a cup, whisk the cornstarch and sugar into 2 tablespoons of the cold milk until smooth. Stirred straight into hot milk, cornstarch forms lumps.
- Melt the cacao. Put the cacao pieces in a small saucepan with 2 more tablespoons of the milk and stir over low heat until it turns into a smooth, thick paste. Whisk in the remaining milk and the salt.
- Thicken it. Unlike our ceremonial and everyday cups, this one needs a brief simmer. Stir the starch mixture and whisk it in. Over medium-low heat, whisk constantly until it bubbles gently (about 203°F, 95°C, at sea level), then keep whisking 1 minute more so the starch thickens fully.
- Pour and rest. Pour it into a small cup and let it stand a minute, without stirring, to set a little. Serve with a spoon.
Adjusting it: too thick? Whisk in a spoonful of warm milk. Never thickened? It most likely did not get hot enough: back in the pan, return it to a gentle bubble for 30 seconds, whisking. Thickened but loose? Use the full 1½ teaspoons next time; long boiling, or stirring once it has set, can thin it. Lumpy? Pour it through a fine sieve into the cup.
Why European hot chocolate is so thick
Three things give European hot chocolate its body:
- Less liquid. Our French cup melts the same 20 g of cacao as our everyday mug into half the liquid (4 oz instead of 8), so every sip carries twice the chocolate.
- Real chocolate, cacao butter and all. Cocoa powder has most of its fat pressed out; whole cacao keeps it. By USDA figures for unsweetened baking chocolate, the closest USDA match for 100% cacao, 20 g holds about 10 g of fat. That is about as much as the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream in our French cup, and more than twice the fat in 4 oz of whole milk.
- A little starch. Italian hot chocolate, like the thick chocolate served with churros, is sometimes thickened with cornstarch, which swells in the heat and can give it an almost pudding-like body.
The French cup uses the first two, for a rich hot chocolate you can pour; the Italian adds the third.
How to serve European hot chocolate
- Small cups. A few ounces this rich is plenty. Our 4 oz Alma Cacao Cups, handcrafted ceramic cups made by a local family of artisans, hold about one serving of either recipe.
- Something to dip. Bread and butter, as at a French breakfast, or churros or a plain biscuit for the spoon-thick Italian cup.
A small, thick cup like this also goes by sipping chocolate; our guide to drinking chocolate explains how the names differ.
Make it your own
- Dairy-free. Both recipes work with plant milk: oat is the creamiest, and canned coconut milk can stand in for the cream.
- Darker. Use 1 teaspoon of sugar, or none. Our dark hot chocolate guide covers keeping a 100% cacao cup smooth rather than harsh.
- For a group. Multiply everything by the number of cups: four cups take 80 g of cacao and 2 cups of milk (or milk and cream) in all.
Good to know: a cup made with 20 g of cacao has about 16 to 32 mg of caffeine. The low figure is USDA's; published lab data for baking chocolate run about twice as high, because cacao varies from bean to bean. Cacao also contains theobromine. Theobromine is a mild stimulant, so people sensitive to caffeine or other stimulants may feel it. If you are pregnant or nursing, take medication or manage a health condition, check with your healthcare provider first. Cacao and chocolate are toxic to dogs, so keep your cup out of reach. More on how the caffeine in cacao compares with coffee.
Common questions
What is the difference between French and Italian hot chocolate?
Both are rich styles usually made from melted chocolate rather than a cocoa mix; what differs is the thickness. French hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) blends the chocolate with milk and sometimes cream, and you sip it. Italian hot chocolate (cioccolata calda) is cooked until you can eat it with a spoon, sometimes with a little cornstarch; at home, start with about 1 teaspoon per ½ cup (4 oz) of milk.
How do you make thick hot chocolate without cream?
Use less milk and whole cacao. Melt 20 g of 100% cacao into a little warm whole milk, then whisk in the rest of ½ cup (4 oz): by USDA figures for unsweetened baking chocolate, that much cacao carries about as much fat as 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, so the cup is rich without any. For a thicker cup, whisk in 1 teaspoon of cornstarch stirred into a little cold milk, bring it to a gentle bubble and whisk 1 minute more.
What chocolate is best for French hot chocolate?
Chocolate you would enjoy eating on its own, melted rather than powdered: a good dark chocolate bar, or 100% cacao paste sweetened to taste. Hot cocoa mixes, usually cocoa powder and sugar, make a thinner, sweeter cup. With a 70% bar, use about 1 oz (28 g), finely chopped, per ½ cup (4 oz) of milk; that holds about the same cacao as 20 g of 100% cacao paste. The bar is already sweetened, so add sugar only after tasting.
How Alma Cacao fits in
We wrote both recipes for Alma Cacao, our ceremonial cacao: 100% whole cacao paste in small pieces, cacao butter and all, that melt into warm milk in about a minute. It is single-origin, from native communities of the Peruvian Amazon, traditionally fermented, sun-dried and stone ground in small batches, tested for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury) by an ISO 17025 accredited lab and made in a GMP certified facility. New to it? Here is what ceremonial cacao is.
The co-op we source from gives 2% back to the producer communities, and we donate another 2% of every sale to For the Love of Mateo. The ½ lb Starter makes about 11 servings of these recipes, and the 1 lb size is our most popular.
