Hot Chocolate: October 2005 Archives

Last winter I really wanted to get to City Bakery for their weekly hot chocolate flavors, but I was homebound with a newborn so I didn't get into town once. This winter I have a 1-year-old, so we are going to spend some time at City Bakery. I'm also going to experiment with different hot chocolate and hot cocoa recipes to see what I think.

This first recipe I tried, in honor of Lovescool's Sugar High Friday dark chocolate theme, was Alice Medrich's recipe from Bittersweet, which I made with a 73 percent dark chocolate that had chiles and cocoa nibs in it. I had made her recipe before and added a pinch of chile powder and I loved the two kinds of heat compounding one another: Is it the temperature heat or the spice heat that has me wanting to rip off my turtleneck?

I like this recipe because Medrich uses a combination of water and milk to let the chocolate flavor shine through without creating something too milky and rich. Chop 3 ounces of dark chocolate and put it in a small saucepan, then pour over it about half of a 3/4 cup of boiling water. Stir to melt the chocolate, then add the rest of the boiling water and 3/4 cup milk. Bring just under a boil; serves 2.