Sometimes the best cure for the chill that worms its way into your fingertips in the winter months is to grab a steaming hot mug. Hot chocolate is one of the most decadent of the winter hot drinks. One can only imagine being in the conversation when it first came into being. “What if we took chocolate, and made it hot?” It’s the sensory pleasure of slipping into a hot bath combined with the epicurean flavor of chocolate. These hot chocolate recipes are no grocery store powder. We have spiked, we have bitter, we even have white chocolate. Warm your heart up with these takes on hot chocolate.
Hot Chocolate Recipes to Stay Cozy This Winter
Spiked Hot Chocolate
This recipe goes all the way back to the Victorian era. While writing A Tale of Two Cities and grappling with personal troubles, Charles Dickens was known to drink a spiked hot chocolate to nurse his sorrows at his favorite pubs. This is a drink for both the best of times and the worst of times. Maybe it can turn the former into the latter.
Melt Your Heart
Rather than drinking alone, here’s one to share. This version of hot chocolate uses white chocolate and tart cherry, perfect for sipping on while snuggling up with a loved one for Valentine’s Day. The Melt Your Heart can be made with or without tequila, but that kick of alcohol certainly doesn’t hurt to warm you up.
Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate
With ancho chilies on top and Mexican chocolate, this hot chocolate recipe promises to be full-flavored and slightly spicy. Balancing out the richness of the chocolate with spice and using more bitter chocolate is key to creating something that won’t give you the dairy-sweetness tummy ache that hot chocolate sometimes induces.
Hot Chocolate Tray
Try the chocolate equivalent of a charcuterie board with our Hot Chocolate Tray. Customize it with cookies and marshmallows of your choice and get everyone involved in making it. We used pizzelles, a milder-tasting cookie you can dip in hot chocolate (but, be careful, as they often crumble into the hot chocolate. That can be less of a mistake and more of a happy accident).
Moonshine Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate combined with Appalachian moonshine? Sounds like a recipe for making any party better. Kim McLaughlin of McLaughlin Distillery, whose moonshine we used, says “Moonshine improves small talk and makes you want to spend time with relatives. Or, at least it gets you on the right track.” But feel free to enjoy this drink on a cozy evening alone, too, perhaps under a blanket with a book.
Story by Emma Riva
Photography by Dave Bryce
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