It’s nice to have a jar of this at home to warm you up. But it also makes a great little Christmas gift. To make a cup of ginger hot chocolate simply put 2 teaspoons of caster sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cocoa, 1/3 teaspoon of cornflour and 1/3 teaspoon (or more or less depending on preference) of ground ginger in a cup, mix it up and add hot milk. For a proper treat top with mini marshmallows and other sprinkles such as chocolate crispies (available in supermarket homebaking sections). To make a jar as a present, just sterilise the jar first (instructions below), fill the jar with an increased quantity of the mixture (minus the milk of course), and decorate the jar as you please. You could fill another jar with toppings too. I just recycle jam/olive jars.
Here are Nigella Lawson’s instructions for sterilising jars:
‘Wash them well in hot, soapy water, rinse well with hot, clean water and dry with a clean cloth. Then put the jars in an oven preheated to 140 degrees/Gas Mk 1 for 10 minutes. Put the contents into the warm jars, seal and leave until completely cold then store in a cool, dark place’ (from www.nigella.com).
More edible Christmas gift ideas coming up! In the meantime check out this chilli jam recipe from a previous blog:
katielovescooking 