This promises to be very bad for your diet. Worse yet, if you read the Gingerbread Hot Chocolate recipe and you don’t make it, your toenails turn green and fall off. Or so I’ve heard!
This is hot chocolate made in the French style using cream, cocoa, and real chocolate to make it rich and thick. Then for some seasonal fun, we’ve spiced up to give you a little kick of ginger, allspice, and cinnamon. Gingerbread Hot Chocolate makes for a marvelous afternoon pick-me-up on a cold winter day or an alternative to coffee or espresso after a meal.
Chocolate. Cream. Spice. Sugar.
One of the benefits of scratch cooking; you know exactly what’s in your food. You can use your favorite sustainably sourced, organic chocolate if you like. This recipe is 100% gluten-free, vegetarian, and made with all-natural ingredients.
It’s Rich. It’s Chocolate. Work with Me!
Gingerbread Hot Chocolate is defiantly rich! So rich, in fact, I suggest espresso cups to serve. (But hey, it’s your waistline!) Do me a favor and don’t try “skinning it up” with 2% milk, skim milk, or some other low-fat dairy nonsense – you’ll just ruin it.
Here’s why: if you reduce the fat you’ll wind up with a sludge of coca solids on the bottom and a scum of coca butter on the top because 2% milk contains too much water and not enough milk fat to bind to the chocolate. This is chemistry people, I’m not making this stuff up.
That said, you absolutely must lighten up the recipe (insert eye-roll here), then use one part homogenized milk against two parts light cream.
Cream for the Win
Of course, some of you are looking for an excuse to drink cream, so you’ll need little convincing. (You know who you are!) The only thing missing in this recipe is booze. I’m thinking aged dark rum, what are you thinking?
Here we’ve showcased Gingerbread Hot Chocolate with our Asian Gingerbread Pear Cake for a full-on gingerbread experience.
Gingerbread Hot Chocolate is made in the French style with cream, coca, and real chocolate to make it rich, thick, and completely YUMMY. A winter pick-me-up perfect for cold, wet days, to warm you from the inside out!
Ingredients
UnitsScale
1cup light cream (half & half or 10% milk fat)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of ground clove
dash white pepper
1oz dark, semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan combine cocoa, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, and pepper – off the heat. Add cream and whisk well until blended. Be sure to get all the cocoa powder blend off the bottom of the pot.
Place over medium-low heat and bring to a low simmer, whisking occasionally to ensure the cream does not scald.
Remove from heat and add chocolate, whisking to melt. As the chocolate melts, the fat from the chocolate will rise to the top.
Return to MINIMUM heat, whisking to emulsify, and allow the cocoa butter to blend with the milk fat. If left to cool a ‘skin’ will form on the top, just whisk it back into the hot chocolate over low heat to bring it back to silky smoothness.
Allow to very, very gently simmer, on the lowest heat setting, for about 3 minutes. To check consistency: dip a clean spoon into the Gingerbread Hot Chocolate and run your finger through the film on the spoon. The clean strip should remain clean, when held horizontally, for at least 5 seconds. Serve immediately, in small cups topped with whipped cream and candied ginger (optional)
Notes
Serving suggestions: whipped cream and candied ginger or a dash of nutmeg/cinnamon.
Fearlessly cooking in her home kitchen just outside Ottawa, Canada; Cori Horton is a food photographer, food marketing consultant, recipe developer and sustainability advocate. A Cordon Bleu trained chef, Cori spent five years as the owner of Nova Scotia's Dragonfly Inn and now shares all things delicious - right here.
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