Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix

I have recently jumped on board with the salted caramel craze. I know, I'm just a year or two behind the times. But there is still plenty of it going around in the blogosphere! I'm really excited to share a dessert I made with you, but it still needs a little tweaking to be more friendly for the overseas baker (in other words, it has some hard to find items in it). But this Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate used all stuff that I can get locally (adapted from here). It makes a HUGE batch. I've got tons of it and have already given some away, too! At least here where I live, its still cold enough to snuggle up in a blanket with a hot mug of this! Its its own dessert! Or it would make a great little Valentine gift for friends, teachers, etc.. Have fun with this!

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix
2 1/2 cups white sugar
3 Tbs vanilla
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbs coarse sea salt (could use more or less to taste)
200-250g (~7-10 oz) chocolate bars (dark, semi-sweet, milk--or mix it up!)

Start by lining a cookie sheet with some parchment paper, foil, or a Silpat and set aside. Put the 2 1/2 cups granulated white sugar into a saucepan or skillet. Cook the sugar over medium-high heat until it starts melting. Start stirring constantly to speed the process along and not let it over cook. It will all eventually melt together and be a dark amber, caramel color. Turn off heat and stir in the vanilla (it will pop and sizzle a bit, be careful!). Pour onto the prepared, lined cookie sheet and allow to cool and harden. After an hour or so, you can take the handle of a knife and bang it against the hardened candy to break it up. Using a food processor or a blender, add the broken pieces and pulverize them into a powder. Add the other ingredients to this and process until completely powdered together. Do the chocolate bars last. That's it! To serve, mix 2 to 3 tablespoons with hot water or milk and enjoy!

Notes: My mini-food processor did this in batches and didn't really do that great of a job breaking up the candy bits. They are super hard. I ended up doing it in an attachment that my blender has that is more like a coffee or spice grinder. It got it really powdery and well mixed in. I just had to do lots of mini batches of the mix. I like it with 2 Tbs of the sea salt, but I started with just 1 in case. Did a little test drink and decided I wanted 2. I was a little worried my melted sugar was getting too dark and would taste burned but some of the bits hadn't melted yet. I went ahead and poured it out, knowing I was just going to pulverize it anyway. I probably could have let it finish though. You'll just have to decide for yourself! I put about 250g of chocolate bars in mine, but its pretty rich. You could back off to even 100g and probably still be fine! I've tried it with milk and water, both are good--best is probably half of each!! Enjoy!

Original article and pictures take http://www.market2meal.com/2012/02/salted-caramel-hot-chocolate-mix.html site