Now, that winter has unofficially started, I have been playing around with some recipes for hot chocolate, focusing first on cocoa based ones. And while they are very good, they miss some of the richness and silkiness of real hot chocolate.

After trying several ones, I found that I prefer the simplest version: only 2 ingredients, milk and chocolate. No need to add water, sugar, and cocoa! Sometimes, the most perfect things are the simplest ones. Adding cocoa takes some of the silkiness away, I find. Plus, it is much easier and faster to make!

I have been using different kinds of chocolate, milk chocolate , dark chocolate and a mixture of both. You can adjust it to your taste. If you love dark chocolate, go for a good quality bitter-sweet or semi-sweet variety. If you are more of a milk chocolate person, that works also beautifully.  You can also mix them to get a more balanced flavour.

I find that real hot chocolate is so rich, it is a dessert in itself, and a very satisfying one at that! I never eat anything with it.

Although this recipe is quite rich and very good by itself, I like to serve it with a dollop of vanilla whipped cream.

Making this with chocolate instead of cocoa and using an immersion blender are the keys to getting this silky rich goodness! Sometimes, I like to add a dash of cayenne pepper.

Serve this recipe in small quantities. I would divide it into 2 or 3 servings.

 

Real Hot Chocolate

1 cup milk
2-3 oz chocolate

Heat the milk in a saucepan and add the chocolate, stirring until almost melted. Pour it into a tall container and use an immersion blender to dissolve the chocolate completely until very smooth and a little foamy. Serve right away.

You can also make it ahead of time and reheat when needed.