I have a more in-depth Hot Chocolate recipe and post.

This hot chocolate is made with real ingredients, just chocolate, milk, and vanilla, and paired with a three-ingredient whipped cream to finish. It’s the perfect winter drink!

Hot Chocolate with Freshly Whipped Cream - Served in Personalized Mugs

Did anyone else watch “Covered in Chocolate” weekend on the Food Network this past weekend? It put me into a little bit of a chocolate craze, and I’m not that much of a chocolate fiend to begin with. I made two different kinds of chocolate truffles, but that wasn’t enough.  I wanted to drink liquid chocolate….hot chocolate!  REAL hot chocolate (no, not those pre-made hot cocoa mixes).  My husband used to drink packaged hot cocoa, which besides having a bajillion strange ingredients in there, also has partially hydrogenated oil.  Mmm…yum…trans fatty oil in your hot cocoa…lmao WHY would partially hydrogenated oil be put into HOT CHOCOLATE?!?!?!  (to extend shelf life) But seriously, hot chocolate is so easy to make, I don’t know why anyone even bother with that nasty powdered stuff.  Oh, and hot chocolate and hot cocoa are often used interchangeably, but they shouldn’t.  Hot cocoa is made by mixing cocoa powder and water, whereas hot chocolate uses chocolate shavings, and is way richer.  Here’s how to make some:

Hot Chocolate with Freshly Whipped Cream - Served in Personalized Mugs

REAL Hot Chocolate with Homemade Whipped Cream

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
This hot chocolate is made with real ingredients, just chocolate, milk, and vanilla, and paired with a three-ingredient whipped cream to finish. It's the perfect winter drink!
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Ingredients

For the hot chocolate:

  • 10 oz semisweet chocolate
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the whipped cream:

  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp frangelico

Instructions 

  • First let us talk about chopping the chocolate. Just as when we make chocolate truffles, we need to get the chocolate broken into small pieces/shavings so that the milk can melt the chocolate completely and evenly. You may have noticed in certain recipes where you have used chocolate chips instead of block chocolate shavings that it didn’t melt properly. That’s because the chocolate chips are unevenly shaped and larger than your chocolate pieces should be. Chop the chocolate well with a knife.
  • In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla to 190 degrees F, which is about scalding temperature. If you don’t have an instant read thermometer, you know it’s scalded when it’s just before the boiling point, is steaming like crazy, and bubbles have formed on the sides. Split the chopped chocolate evenly into your mugs, and pour the scalded milk in, letting it sit for a minute so the heat of the milk can really melt the chocolate. Stir and taste. Is it too thick and chocolatey for you? Add more milk. Is it too thin? Add more chocolate.
  • If you have little bits of unmelted chocolate in your hot chocolate, this means your shavings weren’t thin enough. You can just pop your mug in the microwave to melt it more.
  • To make the whipped cream, whip the cream with a mixer (or by hand…I do it by hand sometimes, though it will take a lot of elbow grease) until the cream thickens slightly, then add the sugar and liqueur. Whip to soft peaks, and spoon on top of your hot chocolate.

Nutrition

Calories: 548kcal, Carbohydrates: 46g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 36g, Saturated Fat: 21g, Cholesterol: 36mg, Sodium: 65mg, Potassium: 574mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 35g, Vitamin A: 450IU, Calcium: 191mg, Iron: 4.5mg

Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.

Course: Drinks
Cuisine: American
Author: Fifteen Spatulas