Monday, January 7, 2013

Dark Hot Chocolate



January is well under way and once the sun goes down its pretty darn cold around here.  Hot chocolate is always assumed to be a kids drink. You know the old story of the children playing in the snow and momma has a cup of cocoa waiting for when they come inside to get toasty. It's even been a cool trend for parties recently. Well, I love chocolate and I think it's time for a hot chocolate update. A more gourmet, grown up style cocoa that, with just a little effort could be a really delicious dessert drink on a cold wintery night.

There are a ton of cocoa mix recipes all over the web right now, and if you love Pinterest as much as I do, you've seen them.  Mine is just a little bit different, with ingredients you may not have thought to put in a cup of hot chocolate.

This recipe serves 1 but it is easily doubled or even quadrupled for great party dessert beverage. 

You need to start off with a quality unsweetened cocoa powder. I am all for buying budget friendly ingredients but when it comes to an ingredient being the main focus of whatever you are making, it needs to be quality stuff...save the grocery store cocoa for that batch of brownies you are planning for your next PTA meeting.

Just a quick side note:
I recently replaced all of my run of the mill spices for a full refresher from The Spice House . I've been very satisfied with the quality of every spice I've used from them so far, and if you have your own spice jars, their bulk options are more than reasonable. 

You need
1 tablespoon+1 tsp dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp orzata (almond syrup)
1 heaping teaspoon sweetened condensed milk.

House of J homemade vanilla bean marshmallows-optional 

Start with milk in a small sauce pan on low heat and gently whisk in cocoa,espresso and sugar until the mixture starts to simmer and bubbles form around the edges.


Add in your almond and sweetened condensed milk and let it come to a very slow rolling boil. 

Pour into  your favorite mug, get cozy and enjoy.



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