How To Make The Best Hot Chocolate

The best hot chocolate is made using the best ingredients. You can substitute if you like, but don’t blame me if it’s not the best you have had. First, hot chocolate is not hot cocoa. It’s liquid chocolate that is piping hot and divine. Just to be extra, this recipe calls for the use of a hot chocolate maker. I use a Nostalgia HCM 700 Retro Red.

The basics are that you will need a liquid, a cocoa powder, and chocolate, preferably semi-sweet.

But this isn’t a basic hot chocolate. It’s the best.

So I use

2 cups of 100% whole milk (no-one said anything about this being a daily drink, just use whole milk and enjoy your cup of heaven. In fact, use half & half and you will only need one cup of hot chocolate per year)

1 teaspoon of Divine Chocolate Cocoa Powder

50g Valrhona Bahibe 46% milk chocolate

150g Valrhona Nyangbo 68% dark chocolate

A pinch of salt

Mix the powder with a few teaspoons of milk so that it is not lumpy.

Plug in the hot chocolate maker and set to HEAT/FROTH.

Add the milk.

Add the chocolate.

Cover and in about five minutes you will have a perfectly frothed velvety hot chocolate. In about twelve minutes, set the machine to FROTH so the milk doesn’t scald, but trust me, there won’t be any hot chocolate left anyway.

Best Hot Chocolate Variation

Remember when I said L.A. Burdick makes the best hot chocolate this side of the world? I still think that’s true so every winter I buy a 12 oz MILK drinking chocolate from them. Just the one. This requires a trip to New York and feels like a Christmas present to myself.

For every 2 cups of 100% whole milk (or half & half if feeling particularly naughty) I add just a little under a cup of Burdick shaved milk chocolate and the pinch of salt. Nothing else. Listen, please, throw your diet out the window. It’s the holidays, it’s winter, and it’s cold. Besides it is only one, or at most two cups per year. Trust me, your tastebuds won’t want any other kind of hot chocolate drink. Starbucks? Forget it!

I find that this 2 cups recipe delights about 4 – 5 people. So really, it’s not that bad calorie-wise.

I take my cup with a sprinkle of cardamom and a dash of bourbon.

Simply heaven. Why am I writing this up in June? I almost can’t wait for winter to roll around again. Almost.