Three Hot Chocolates for Christmas!

Mmmm, who doesn’t love a cup of steaming hot chocolate on a cold winters day?

We enjoy hot chocolate quite frequently in the Christmas season and until spring arrives.
There are many ways to make hot chocolate or some will call it hot cocoa (but we really don’t want to be calling it that), so let’s begin with the most important ingredient: Chocolate!!

There it is, we said it. Make your hot chocolate from real, good quality chocolate instead of cocoa powder, and you will have a delicious rich flavoured drink every time.

We have been playing around with various flavours over the years and here are our three favourites:

Aztec, full of spices.

Raspberry White Chocolate

Orange & liqueur

Let’s start with the base for every hot chocolate you will ever make from now on 🙂

-Milk
-Chocolate

In a clean pot heat up the milk. Stir frequently and turn of the heat just before it begins to boil. If you let it boil it will form a skin on top of the milk, which is not very delicious to drink.
Pour in the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. Then whisk together till all the chocolate is melted. It might look like it is not coming together at first, but keep whisking and it will happen.
There is your basic hot chocolate, and you really don’t need any more than that.

Now you can add whipped cream, marshmallows or drink it as it is.

Now to the various flavours that we enjoy the most:

Aztec
Ingredients per person:

3 dl (1 1/4 cup) milk
60 g (2 oz) dark chocolate (we use Valrhona)
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon chili flakes
1/16 teaspoon ground mace spice or nutmeg
4 cardamom pods

Directions:

In a morter crush the cardamom pods and star anise till they break, pour into the milk in the pot and add chili flakes, mace spice or nutmeg and cinnamon stick.
Heat the milk with the spices till almost boiling.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and when the milk is ready, pour it over the chocolate through a strainer to catch all the big pieces of spices.
Let it sit for 2 minutes and then whisk till combined.

Pour into glasses and serve with whipped cream and a drizzle of ground cinnamon.

Raspberry
Ingredients per person:

3 dl (1 1/4 cup) milk
60 g (2 oz) white chocolate (we use Valrhona Dulcey, it has been caramelized so it has a little darker colour than regular white chocolate)
60 g (2 oz) raspberries, plus a few for decoration
Whipping cream

Directions:

Heat up the milk till almost boiling. Pour the white chocolate in and let it sit for 2 minutes. In the meantime, puree the raspberries and press them through a strainer to remove seeds. Save a teaspoon for the whipping cream, and pour the rest into the milk and white chocolate. Stir till combined.
Whip the whipping cream till almost ready, add the teaspoon of raspberry puree and whip till your preferred texture.

Serve the hot chocolate with whipped cream and decorate with a few raspberries.

Orange
Ingredients per person:

3 dl (1 1/4 cup) milk
60 g (2 oz) dark chocolate (we use Valrhona, Manjari)
1 quarter caramelized orange peel (see here how to make your own caramelized orange peel)
1 tablespoon orange syrup (left over from the caramelized orange peels, see here for details) plus 1 tablespoon for the whipping cream
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Directions:

Heat up the milk till almost boiling. Pour the dark chocolate in and let it sit for 2 minutes. While the chocolate is melting, cut the orange peel into tiny cubes.
Whisk the milk and chocolate together and add the Grand Marnier and orange syrup. Whisk till well combined. Add about half of the cubed orange peels. Pour into a glass or cup.
Whip the whipping cream till almost ready, add 1 tablespoon orange syrup and whip again till your preferred texture.

Serve the orange hot chocolate with orange infused whipping cream (which by the way is the best whipping cream we have ever made) and decorate with the rest of the cubed orange peels.

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite hot chocolate is.

-Enjoy!