What, you may ask, has this got to do with either caravans or motorhomes?
Enjoy a frothy mug of hot chocolate in your campervan
To get us started, I’ll share one of my winter-camping favourites with you. When we popped out in our beloved Hymer last weekend we were warm and cosy inside, but outside it was more than a little chilly. When we got back in our ‘van then we wanted to warn ourselves up a bit, so I set to making some delicious frothy hot chocolate. The recipe is something that I adapted for camping from Jamie Oliver.
We think this a great way to make the best hot chocolate, cappuccino (or indeed any frothy milk drinks) in your motorhome without having to carry any expensive machinery. All you need is a thermos flask, or a plastic jug with a screw-top lid. The method works brilliantly for Ovaltine too, and our young daughter adores it with Horlicks Light (and as she’s young, this is a great way to get her to drink milk). Better yet, it takes considerably less than 5 minutes to make:
Overview
- Servings: 2-3 mugs (depends on size of mug)
- Prepatation Time: 1 minute
- Cooking Time: 4 minutes
- Difficulty: Easy (even Andrew can do this)
Ingredients
- 1 pint (a bit more than 0.5 litre) milk
- 2-4 tablespoons hot chocolate / Ovaltine / Horlicks powder
- A handful of marshmallows (optional)
- A few squares of chocolate (optional)
Method
- Put a pan of milk on to heat and bring to a simmer, not a boil. While it’s heating, put a tablespoon of chocolate/Ovaltine/Horlicks powder into each mug.
- Add a little warm milk from the pan to each mug (just enough to dissolve the chocolate powder) and stir.
- Drop a few marshmallows into each mug. For our daughter I add a couple of squares of chocolate too because, when she sees me doing this, it becomes a battle to try and stop her drinking her mug of milk…
- When the milk is at a simmer, carefully pour it into a plastic jug or flask. I normally do this over a sink as I always end up spilling a bit. You need a big enough jug or flask so the milk only half fills it as you need the extra space for shaking and frothing (if you only have a smallish flask or jug, just do this next bit in 2 or 3 stages).
- Screw the lid on tightly, place a cloth over the lid for safety, and shake hard for a minute.
Remove the lid, being careful of the steam (that cloth over the lid comes in handy again), and pour into your mug(s). - Give the contents a little stir, sprinkle a few grains of chocolate powder on the top, and top off with one last marshmallow to complete the decoration.
- Sit back, relax, and slurp your way to happiness as you warm up.
Now, that is what I call enjoying life in your caravan.
This recipe was based on one in Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef although for camping use his later book Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals may be of more general use in a campervan (and as he has a VW campervan himself, you never know your luck).
Either way, “watch this space” for more delicious ideas for tasty food and drink you can easily knock-up in your motorhome.
