Hot Chocolate Recipe (5 Variations)
Who doesn’t like a good hot chocolate recipe? There is nothing quite like sitting in front of a fire or heater with the “perfect” Hot Chocolate on a cold day… But like everything chocolate – it depends on your own taste buds as to what you consider “perfect” to be. So today I’m giving you five variants on this old favorite in the hope you will find one to suit your taste buds.
Let’s start with the basics with a very simple hot chocolate recipe.
Simple Hot Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- 80g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
- Marshmallows
Method
Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer then reduce to a low-heat. Place the chocolate in the saucepan and whisk until melted and combined. Pour the hot chocolate into serving mugs and top with marshmallows.
White Hot Chocolate Recipe
Of course the “traditional” is not always for everyone. So how about a white chocolate hot chocolate?
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- 160g good-quality white chocolate, finely chopped
- Whipped cream
Method
Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer then reduce to a low-heat. Place 100g of the chocolate in the saucepan and whisk until melted and combined. Pour the hot chocolate into serving mugs and top with cream and sprinkle over the remaining chocolate.
Chilli Hot Chocolate
The Aztecs were the first to serve chocolate as a drink, but they also mixed it with hot chilli pepper to make a really special beverage. So here is an exotic twist to hot chocolate.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- 100g chilli dark chocolate, finely chopped
- Whipped cream
- Chilli Powder
Method
Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer then reduce to a low-heat. Place the chocolate in saucepan and whisk until melted and combined. Pour the hot chocolate into serving mugs and top with a dollop of cream and then sprinkle with Chilli Powder. If chilli chocolate is unavailable, replace with dark chocolate but add one small fresh red chilli, split lengthways, to the milk whilst heating and remove the chilli before serving.
Peppermint Hot Chocolate
How about a minty twist to the Hot Chocolate norm?
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- 100g mint dark chocolate (such as Lindt Excellence Mint Intense), finely chopped
- Peppermint chocolate bar (such as Peppermint Crisp or Mint Aero), roughly chopped
- Marshmallows
Method
Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer then reduce to a low-heat. Place the chocolate in saucepan and whisk until melted and combined. Pour the hot chocolate into serving mugs and top with marshmallows sprinkled with the chopped peppermint bar.
Rich Hot Chocolate and Churros
In Mexico, hot chocolate is a popular national drink, often served with Churros. To eat these delicious doughnuts like they do in Mexico, give them a quick dunk in this rich hot chocolate.
Churros Ingredients (serves 4)
- 125g butter, chopped
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup (150g) plain flour, sifted
- 3 eggs
- Vegetable oil, to deep-fry
- 1/3 cup (65g) caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Hot Chocolate Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- 400g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
Method
To make the Churros, place butter and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until butter melts and water just comes to the boil. Add flour and stir until well combined and mixture comes away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer, cool slightly then add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, until mixture is smooth. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle.
Heat enough oil in a deep frying pan to reach a level of about 4-5cm. (Oil is ready when a cube of bread browns in about 15 seconds.) Pipe 8 x 10cm lengths of dough into hot oil and cook for 1 minute each side, then drain on paper towel. Immediately place Churros on a tray containing the combined sugar and cinnamon and toss gently to coat. Repeat with remaining dough.
To make the hot chocolate, place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, whisk in chocolate until melted and then whisk in cinnamon, vanilla and salt. Divide evenly into four cups and serve with the Churros.
Of course I would stumble upon this when it’s way too hot to be drinking hot chocolate! 🙂 Summer can’t last forever, though, and these all look really good.
@wnabtokio
I second that! But this goes into my recipe bookmarks folder
I think we should get Ben to do some chocolate milkshake recipes…
To be honest, for a chocolate blog that someone took the time to write, I expected more than this. Good hot chocolate is not hard, but your recipes could lead people to wondering why they bothered looking on here for a recipe.
And these aren’t “good” recipes, they are mediocre.
A good cup of hot chocolate takes more finesse, you don’t chop chocolate, you grate it, or double boil it. Which is a pot of boiling water with a heating bowl on top with the chocolate in it. It heats the chocolate with steam as opposed to fire to keep the chocolate from burning.
And you use unsweetened chocolate, so you that can add sugar to taste.
and while heating the milk, you add a dash of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
If you want the chocolate to be a little creamier, you blend the milk with 4/5 parts milk 1/5 part non dairy creamer.
I can’t believe I actually stumbled this.
I made the Chilli one. I plan on trying every one of these hot chocolate recipes. These are really simple too. So glad to have come across this. Thanks!
-by the way…Joe, you’re a snooty jerk.-
I have to admit, I take objection to the idea of “white chocolate” as a concept, period, and thus the idea of white hot chocolate is somewhat odd.
As for Joe’s comment about grating rather than chopping… when you melt chocolate, who cares? The ideas of adding a little salt or vanilla are good, but could have been put a little more nicely.
And finally, I’m not sure about the use of “non-diary creamer”. This might be the kind of abomination that is prevalent in the US, the output of a nasty chemical factory, but I’d never, ever, recommend somebody use such a thing in a recipe. Why not just a a little real cream?
What the hell is ‘non dairy creamer’? Sounds disturbing…
Recipes notwithstanding, try to take photos that aren’t blurry. Either boost the available light, or add some support to your camera.
Joe – I take the “keep it simple stupid” approach with my recipes – something I clearly need to make more obvious. This gives each individual to add their own twists to the recipe, such as my Easy Chocolate Brownies Recipe (https://www.chocablog.com/recipes/easy-chocolate-brownies/) which is a very hardy recipe if you were to replace the “chunky” ingredients (such as replace walnuts with coffee beans). Thank you for your own twists to the Simple Hot Chocolate recipe – but non dairy creamer is not for me. The Simple Hot Chocolate Recipe, like the Brownies – again is a pretty hardy recipe that can cope with the addition of vanilla seeds, vanilla extract, cinnamon, chilli powder and so much more… I think recipes can sometimes be too complicated, which is what turns people off from cooking/baking at home. Most of the time the simple approach is the nicer one anyway.
Jimmy – my two year old got too and destroyed my camera part way through this (leaving only my “back up” for some of the photos) and I have since brought a new one.
I like mine with a shot of vanilla extract and a slug of rum/brandy/calvados/whiskey. Very dark chocolatey and not oversweet – I use honey as a sweetener. No marshmallows or whipped cream though. Non dairy creamer? What a terrible thing.
Ahhh. Non dairy creamer. What a scam. Did you all know that non dairy creamer actually has dairy in it? It is just so chemically distorted that they can legally say that it is “non-dairy”.
Boy, people can be unpleasant for no good reason. Constructive criticism is one thing, but just being snarky for the sake of being snarky–not so nice.
Anyway, I echo whoever said that it’s a bit of a shame to stumble across this page with the Dog Days imminent, but here’s another way to take a tip from the Mexicans: make yourself a chocolate granita. Easy, tasty, healthful, and reviving.
And as far as I’m concerned, you can put sardines, pickles and white chocolate in it (I know, I know. There’s no chocolate in white chocolate, but that’s what it’s called), if that’s what makes you happy. That’s what counts.
I should add that I can happily provide a recipe for the above-mentioned granita, on request.
Hot chocolate is simple to begin with so i don’t quite see what else could have been done with the recipes. The chili powder put a nice twist on a classic drink. Nice work! I intend to try these recipes and enjoy every last drop 🙂
Note to Joe: you’re a pretentious douche and i’m appalled by your condescending attitude towards someone you’ve never even met. Your comment is downright disrespectful and unnecessary. If you don’t like the page, move on! That’s what the thumbs down button is for in your Stumble toolbar.
These are great, no matter what the overly critical say!
Whee, I was just looking forward to making Hot Chocolate since it’s winter now, and I have a lot of chocolate callets lying around in the house. Thanks!
Too bad I live in Arizona–I’m craving some hot chocolate right now after seeing these 🙂
To Joe: Seriously? You took the time to be a complete douche nugget to someone who took the time to write and share these recipes. Man, I hope that made you feel good about yourself.
To Uisgea: That sounds good! What is the recipe? I’d love to have it on hand. 🙂
It’s a specialty of Oaxaca, and it’s pretty simple. Do use Mexican chocolate, if you can find it (it’s blended with cinnamon, almonds, and sugar).
3 c water
1/3 c sugar
3/4 lb chocolate (preferably Mexican), chopped or banged up into pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 egg whites
Simmer the water and add the sugar to dissolve. Take it off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir it until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the vanilla, and then let it sit and cool to lukewarm (or slightly warmer).
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whisk the chocolate in pretty quickly, and combine them well. You can then either put it in an ice cream maker and follow its directions, or:
Transfer it to a bowl or baking dish and freeze it ’til it’s just about solid–generally about four hours. Cut it into quarters. Put three of them back into the freezer and the fourth into your food processor. Pulse it until you get an icy, smooth mix. It sometimes balls up into weird fudgy bits at first, but keep going; it’ll smooth out. Make sure you don’t overwork it to the point that it starts melting. Glomp that into a large serving bowl (or use individual dishes–you should get about eight), and stick it in the coldest part of your freezer. Repeat that procedure with the remaining quarters. Once it’s all been back in the freezer for about half an hour, cover the serving bowl (or each individual dish) with plastic and then with foil. Remove it (or them) to the refrigerator twenty minutes before serving time, and you’re done.
It’ll keep for days–even weeks–in the freezer.
I guess it isn’t really a granita, strictly speaking, but when you taste it you won’t care.
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing 🙂
My pleasure. If you try it–which I hope you do–let me know how it went and what you think.
I think the recipes are great. ‘Joe’ is a prize ass. Anyone using ‘finesse’ and ‘non-dairy creamer’ in the same breath hasn’t got a clue.
Marshmallows? It has to be whipped cream. It is the Danish in me.
Great recipes. Thanx.
Here, Joe – have a nice, hot cup of Get The F.ck Over Yourself.
Thanks for the recipes, Ben – will try the chilli version tomorrow!
By “chilli” I assume you mean what we in the USA call “chile”–something of the capsicum family. If so, I can only opine that they go wonderfully together, if you get the balance right, so I look forward to trying that one too. If “chilli” isn’t “chile,” then I’m at an absolute loss.
And oh, yes–Joe’s what we in the USA call an “ass.”
Uisgea: There are multiple accepted spellings of the word “chilli” (chili, chile, chillie) and non of them are US-specific. The spelling used here is the one most commonly used in chocolate, and we stick to it just for consistency.
But yes, it’s referring to something of the capsicum family. 🙂
It looks so delicious
Anyway i am going to try this at home
Let us know how they worked!
Mouth watering to me,While seeing this Hot chocolate
They taste as good as they look 😉
you know guys i already tasted this Hot chocolate lovely taste
I need to try this. I so need to try this!
During our week off in Feb, my boyfriend and I agreed to try and make a different variation of hot chocolate everyday and I’m pretty sure I’ll be using your recipes. Obviously with 9 days though I’d need 4 more ideas to fill up every day. I’m thinking… nutella, raspberry, and mocha hot chocolate. Still searching for that final one though. 🙂
These are awesome. I love chocolate always. Keep posting more.