Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate and about malt

The Amazing Turnip Girl and I were going through a couple cookbooks that I'll be reviewing soon and there were two recipes that caught her chocolate loving eye immediately. One was for a malted hot chocolate, the other was for a frozen hot chocolate. We discussed making our own malted frozen hot chocolate which was an idea she was very enthused about.

First, I had to learn about malt. Because I know I'm not really a fan of Carnation malted milk which is the kind most easily available at our super market. So after a bit of research, I learned that malted milk is made with non-diastatic malt and dry milk. So then off to find out more about diastatic and non-diastatic malts. Diastatic malts have active enzymes in them that work well in baking in small amounts with yeast for a great rise and brown. Non-diastatic malts are generally used as a sweetener and flavor and don't have active enzymes. A bit more research pointed up that a lot of home beer brewing is done using non-diastatic malt extracts. Since I knew my recipe would have milk in it, I just wanted a good malt flavor.

So off to the local brewing supply, Arctic Brewing Supply where they had a ton of options for malt. We had decided powder already, malts are available as both liquid and dried powder. Then we picked out 3 different malt powder extracts to bring home and try. Light, amber and dark. The very helpful person working that day specifically recommended against dark for baking and recipes because she had fielded complaints from people about the flavor.

We got home, and mixed the malts in chocolate milk. Just a chocolate milk powder, milk and a small amount of malt, and we tried each one. We actually liked the dark malt best. It has a toastier, warmer flavor.

After all that time looking into malts, we also decided to use a better chocolate.

Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate- makes 4 tall servings (12 oz)

You will need:

• 6 cups of milk
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar- we used Lindt
• 4 Tablespoons dry malt extract

Cut up the candy bar into small pieces.

Put 4 cups of milk, pinch of salt and sugar into a sauce pan and heat while whisking in the sugar until small bubbles are forming around the edge of the pan. After it's hot, add the chocolate and malt and keep whisking until the chocolate melts completely and you have no clumps of malt extract powder. Take off heat and whisk in the vanilla. 

If you have silicone ice cube trays, just pour it into the ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. If you have regular ice cube trays, let it cool a bit so it doesn't warp the plastic. Freeze into cubes.

After it's frozen, put half the ice cubes and a cup of milk into a blender, and blend until all the cubes are completely crushed and mixed in. At this point it looks a lot like a milk shake. Fill 2 cups with that, then repeat with the other half of the cubes. Serve with whipped cream or marshmallows!

Because of how it's made, you could make 2 servings, then save the rest of the cubes for another 2 servings later, or even make just one serving at time by using 1/4 of the cubes and a 1/2 cup of milk!

It turned out really delicious. Even my husband who is hit or miss with malt really likes the flavor.