Don’t laugh. There are those who took the instruction to “stay away from the stove” when they were children seriously. They have never even tried to boil water. It’s okay. Boiling water is a basic skill that will serve you well in the future. By boiling water you can make: pasta, hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal and as in this demonstration – hot chocolate, just to name a few things.
For a cup of hot chocolate start with a bit more water than you’ll need in a small saucepan.
Put the heat on high. Don’t walk away from an open flame like this. Although it seems to take forever for water to boil, it only takes a few minutes. If you forget the pan the water will boil away and the pot will burn. You don’t want to deal with a fire situation over a cup of hot chocolate.
After a couple of minutes you’ll notice small bubbles breaking on the surface.
If you were to lower the heat and keep the liquid heating with small bubbles it would be called simmering. That is a cooking technique we will use in the future.
In a few more minutes the bubbles will get bigger.
You’ll notice the bubbles are breaking and rising from the bottom almost constantly. This is a roiling (or rolling) boil. At this point the water is boiled and it is hot enough to transform what you want to cook.
This hot water will take a packet of dry sugar and chocolate and change it into
a rich creamy drink.
So let’s get boiling!
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