Mexican hot chocolate

This is the hot chocolate mix that I bought for Pete. I got it from Samios on Ipswich Road (they have great stuff there).
However, we found that it was...not so great.
When you open it, it's full of little solid chocolate triangles that you are apparently supposed to blend with hot milk and then throw it through a blender.

Problem 1: We don't have a blender. Students can't afford blenders, and they take up a lot of precious bench space in bizarre rental kitchens.

Problem 2: We don't have a blender.

So, in an attempt to bypass the instructions, we tried to just whisk the mixture really good (Whisk it good! Whisk it real good!) but that just resulted in a lumpy powdery mix of brown milk that tasted feral and was VERY UNLIKE the yummy thick creamy event that we had been expecting.

After this, I gave up on Ibarra. Perhaps one day, my new blender and I will revisit this hexagonal yellow box. But not now.

I decided to Invent Own Recipe (with a little help from the web, of course).

PINKY'S HISPANIC-LATINO HOT CHOCOLATE

1. Pour enough Trim, or full-cream, into a small saucepan for all of you. Allow about half a cup per person, or more if you are the sickly chocolate-overload type.
2. Add a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder. I use quite a lot- two or three giant tablespoons.
3. Add icing sugar to taste. Traditionally, this shouldn't be TOO sweet.
4. Add chili powder to taste. Less is more...once it heats up, the chili will really come out.
5. Stir over medium heat until all is incorporated and smooth and lumpless.
6. Scoop out a cupful and set this aside. Keep heating.
7. To the separate cupful, stir in 1 and a half heaped teaspoons of cornflour.
8. Return this to the saucepan and stir stir stir, stir stir stir, until all is a thick, smooth, gorgeous mass.

The good thing about this is that if you use Trim, it's basically a very low-fat event. You could use skim, but I suspect that it needs a little fat to bind itself. It can be as low-sugar as you want to make it.

Once I souped this up by adding a few squares of Lindt to the saucepan and melting them in. This was FANTASTIC, but now I usually limit myself to just using cocoa.

I think that in tiny individual bowls with spoons, this might make a fabulous end to a late-night winter gathering.