Hot chocolate is an ideal way to enjoy the holidays. It is a perfect accompaniment to both a Christmas cookie and a snowball fight. Though Swiss Miss has her place and Hershey’s never did anyone wrong, ‘tis the season for creating homemade, from-scratch treats.
Though generally considered interchangeable, hot cocoa and hot chocolate are actually two different things. Hot cocoa is made from Dutch processed cocoa powder, whereas hot chocolate is made from, well- chocolate.
In our December issue, BRM developed a simple recipe designed to showcase the magic of the best chocolate you can find. We used two high-quality organic brands purchased at the Lexington Co-op. The great thing about this recipe is that it allows you to use any kind of chocolate that you like. Bittersweet, semisweet, milk or any combination of these- each will produce its own unique elixir. The amount of sugar in the hot chocolate portion of the recipe can be increased or decreased, depending on your personal taste. If you choose to use a “sweet” chocolate, omit the sugar all together. This recipes makes a very chocolate-y hot chocolate. It can be thinned by adding an additional cup of milk or cream.