The Netherlands gave the world Dutch process cocoa. Around 1828 the van Houten family of Amsterdam developed a press that squeezed much of the fat out of cocoa beans, and Coenraad van Houten is credited with treating the powder with alkaline salts to make it darker, milder and easier to mix with milk. Warme chocolademelk, hot chocolate milk, is what that invention is for. It is sold in every café, poured from flasks at skating rinks in winter and made at home from cocoa, sugar and whole milk, always with a spoonful of slagroom, whipped cream, on top.

Zandvoort's Grand Prix is a late summer race, but it is held in dunes beside the North Sea, and the weather there has a way of forgetting the date. A flask of this in the bag is the Dutch answer to a cold grandstand, and a far better one than a thin jacket.

The hot chocolate

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (25 g) Dutch process cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 4 cups (950 ml) whole milk
• 2 oz (55 g) dark chocolate, about 60 to 70 percent cocoa

The whipped cream

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (120 ml) cold heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons powdered sugar

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