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Was it you, @jordantcarter, who asked me for the best place to have Italian-style hot chocolate? The answer is "your house". And since I froze to the bone getting my daughter from school (happy first day of spring, Wellington) I thought I'd make it when we got back. Here's how:
These are your main ingredients. I only recently (finally!) worked out what maizena is called in English. It's not corn flour, it's maize starch, but you call it flour to try to confuse me and to be honest it worked. It costs $1.50 a packet and will last you a year.
To that you add milk and sugar and a square or two of dark chocolates if you happen to have it which I did so I did. Quantities for four people: 600 ml milk, 60 g cocoa, 100 g sugar, 20 g maize corn "flour". The hard chocolate if it's there. Chuck in a thick bottomed steel pot.
Cook on a medium flame, mixing all the time with a whisk. First slowly, then fast as it starts to thicken. When you judge it's thick enough, turn off the element and mix for another minute or so. You want this kind of consistency.
That's it. No, wait, here are some thoughts about the possibilities of producing maizena in New Zealand in the early 1880s from the pamphlet collection of sir Robert Stout. http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Stout23-t17-body-d1-d5-d18.html
