Drinkable Warmth

I have so many friends that I’ve begged to submit to ES.  I mean like full court harassment. One of them is Anna (aka Very Very Good Girl.)  She really knows her shit.  So when 80 and I went to visit her and her husband, Jeb, I was finally able to “interview” Anna about one of her recipes.

We were all sitting around, watching the ridiculousness of the X games and as breakfast wore off, I started to get a bit hungry and I was a bit cold.  Anna sipped on tea for warmth, but I wanted something to remedy both my hunger and body temp—and my craving for dessert.  Because she didn’t have pre-packaged hot chocolate around, she offered to make it from scratch.  Hello!

Homemade Hot Chocolate

In a small sauce pan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup water, stir pretty regularly while bringing to a boil.  Add in just a few grindings of sea salt and boil for 2 minutes. Keep stirring.

In a separate pan, warm up 4 mugs worth of milk (3 cups?) and 1/2 of a half pint of whipping cream and a bit of water to combat the thickness of the whipping cream.  Stir the cocoa mixture into the milk and let it warm together while you make the whip cream.  You can also put the mugs on the stove top to warm them up before serving.  (Energy efficiency!)

In a cold metal pan, whip the rest of the whipping cream into, well, whip cream.

Pour a few drops of vanilla extract into each mug and then add in the hot chocolate, stir together.  Top with whip cream and a sprinkle of cocoa powder.

And if you’re feeling silly, I bet a shot of Kahlua wouldn’t hurt.