Expert: Paul Wagner - 11/27/2007

Question
I've been making hot chocolate for a few years now from scratch, taking whole milk or heavy cream and some dark chocolate. After it's made, if you let it sit for a minute or two, a skin begins to form on the top of the beverage.

I assume that's either the impurities from the chocolate, or the chocolate beginning to harden...

I've not found a way to get rid of this completely, can you suggest something?

Answer
Hi Chris

The skin isn't from the chocolate--it's from the milk.  Try heating milk up the same way, and the same thing will happen.  Milk has lots of different kinds of proteins in it, and when they are heated, some them form into this skin. It isn't dangerous or impure--and some of the kids in my family used to fight over who got to skim it off and eat it.  

The only way to get rid of it is the way you get rid of it in milk--by skimming it off the top.  

Hope that helps.

Paul Wagner