Hot Chocolate 3 Delicious Ways

Nothing cures a cold day like cozying up with a steaming cup of homemade hot chocolate. Today I'm going to show you how to make hot chocolate three delicious ways. I'm going to start with my classic hot chocolate recipe, and then I'm going to show you a sweet and silky white hot chocolate recipe, and finally we are going to make a dark hot chocolate recipe with a little bit of a cayenne kick. It's going to be delicious, so get ready for it. Let's start with our classic hot chocolate recipe. Now each of these recipes makes a single cup of hot chocolate, so all you have to do is multiply each recipe by how many cups you want. In a small saucepan, I'm going to start by heating up one cup of milk and a quarter cup of cream. Now if you want to keep this on the lighter side, you can totally omit the cream and just add a little more milk, that's fine. But I think if you're going to make hot chocolate, you might as well go all the way. So we're going to heat up our milk and our cream mixture over medium low heat. You want to make sure you're doing this low and slow because you don't want to scald this mixture. Once you start to see a little bit of steam rising from your pan, you know it's time to turn off the heat and add your chocolate. Now for this classic recipe, I am using milk chocolate chips. What I love about using milk chocolate chips is that they're quite sweet already, so you don't need to add any additional sugar. But you can really use any kind of chocolate you like. All we're going to do is take our whisk and stir the milk mixture until the chocolate has completely melted and it's all combined. And voila, you have gorgeous hot chocolate that is ready to drink. We're going to top it with a little bit of whipped cream and because it's seasonal, some crushed candy canes. What could be tastier? Now it's time to talk about our white hot chocolate. In our small sauce pan, we're going to heat up a cup of milk and a quarter cup of cream. Once that has come up to temperature, we're going to turn our heat off and then we are going to add some white chocolate chips. Now I love white chocolate chips because they're super sweet, so you don't need to add any additional sugar. We're also going to add just a splash of vanilla because I find it just brightens up all the flavors. We're going to whisk this mixture until the white chocolate chips have melted entirely and then we're going to pour it into our mug. Now I'm going to finish off this beautiful white hot chocolate with some whipped cream and a little Oreo crumble for good measure. Finally, I'm going to share with you my recipe for some spicy dark hot chocolate. In a small sauce pan, I'm combining my milk and my cream over medium low heat. I'm going to bring it to temperature and then turn off the heat. I'm going to pour in some shaved dark chocolate and then we're going to add some cinnamon and a little bit of cayenne pepper for kick. You can add as much or as little cayenne as you want. It's really just a matter of how spicy you want to make this. I like to add about an eighth of a teaspoon. I think that's plenty. I'm also going to add just a spoonful of sugar. Once again, you're going to whisk this beautiful concoction until all of the chocolate is melted. Then you can put it in a mug, top it with some whipped cream and a little bit more cinnamon. How delicious is that? Absolutely good enough to drink. I hope you'll give these tasty recipes a try and if you do, be sure to tweet or Instagram me a photo because I love seeing what you're coming up with in your very own kitchens. And of course, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to The Domestic Geek because there's lots more deliciousness where this came from.