Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Fail

Salted caramel seems to be all the rage these days. I've never had it before, but I do love salty and sweet things like chocolate covered pretzels or chocolate covered potato chips. So my logic told me that I would love salted caramel as well.

One of Starbucks seasonal beverages is a salted caramel hot chocolate, which I have also never had. (Yeah, I know. We've been through this before. I live under a rock.) When I came across the recipe on Taste and Tell for salted caramel hot chocolate I figured I had hit the jackpot.

This would be the perfect way to use some of that dulce de leche that I made in the microwave.  Woah.  That stuff totally solidified like real caramel in the fridge.  Man.  The slow cooked stuff never did that.  I gave the dulce de leche a test taste to make sure it was still good.  Yes.  It was good, but very very chewy.

So I heated up the caramel in the microwave in 20 second bursts until it was scoopable.  I put my 4 Tablespoons in the pan with the milk and cocoa, then heated the whole thing up on the stove.  I tested a spoonful and it was not nearly sweet enough. In went a few more tablespoons of DDL. Mrblocko gave it a test taste and we declared it to be sweet enough.

At this point I realized that I hadn't added the salt.  So I put in 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt and stirred the brew some more.

Mrblocko divided the hot chocolate into 3 mugs and I heaped on the marshmellows as usual.  The first sip tasted fine.  But I couldn't drink any more after the second.  The drink tasted off to me. I thought it was just me as I had a cold.  Then Mrblocko put his mug down and made a weird face.

"It's too salty!" he exclaimed. 

Blockette thought it was too salty as well, but she insisted on eating the marshmellows before we dumped out the hot chocolate.  Apparently the marshmellows didn't absorb any salty taste, so at least there was that.

Oh well.  Lots of people like salted caramel stuff, but I guess it just isn't our thing.


Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Taste and Tell
4 tablespoons dulce de leche
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
whipped cream

In a small pot over medium heat, warm the dulce de leche. Whisk in the milk, cocoa powder and salt until smooth. Heat until warmed and serve immediately topped with whipped cream.