Ever since reading Calico Captive as a teenager, I have been fascinated with the idea of sipping chocolate.
This year I actually made it a couple times during the holidays, and may very well make it again as the winter progresses.
It’s very good.
So much depends on the chocolate you use, but I’ve actually really enjoyed my Costco brand chocolate chips. Who knew, right? I should really try it with some of the fancy organic fairtrade $4/bar chocolates and see how that changes the experience, but so far the chocolate chips are doing the trick.
One of the really fun parts is garnish–or whatever else you call the last finishing touch ingredient. So far my favorite is cinnamon sprinkled on top, but cinnamon with a spit of hot chili powder is also good. You could also use whipped cream, or whipping cream straight, lavender or rose (if you like drinking flowers), orange zest, fancy salt, vanilla sugar…Lindt bar flavors are great inspiration for chocolate toppers.
Cheers!
The Recipe (adapted from the Tasty Kitchen Blog)
3 c whole milk
1/2 c heavy cream
8 oz chocolate finely chopped
1 tsp maple syrup or honey (I used honey)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used homemade bourbon vanilla extract)
dash salt (brings out the flavor)
Warning: This is a really, really rich drink. Tasty Kitchen says it makes 4 servings. You have to have a serious capacity to down chocolate to only get 4 servings out of this. You could generously serve 6, or comfortably serve 8. This recipe does alright the next day chilled, though, so leftovers are not the end of the world.
Warm the milk and cream to nearly a simmer, add the chopped chocolate and whisk till melted. Add the honey, vanilla extract and dash of salt. Simmer and whisk about 4 minutes until starting to thicken.
Serve with cinnamon or whipped cream. Or both. Sky’s the limit.
