Kevin's Watch

I was just reading the "Easter" thread, and it set me to thinking about hot chocolate. Wrong time of the year in the northern hemisphere - what with it getting warmer these days - but here it is anyway. My favorite hot chocolate!! (And I've tried a lot!)

First of all, *ALL* hot chocolate, from scratch to packages of instant, should be made with milk. (That's all I'll say about that, because if I get started on making it with water, we'll be here all day!)

Second, go out and get yourself a Cocomotion by Mr. Coffee. You throw in the ingredients - just milk and chocolate chips works, btw - and hit the button. It blends everything perfectly! Whoever invented it didn't get paid enough, whatever it is.

But don't worry if you don't have one. Put all the ingredients in a pot on the stove. It takes more time and effort, especially to mix the chips thoroughly, but it works.

And here's what I think should be thrown in:
1) Your typical coffee cup/mug's worth of milk. It comes to about 1 1/8 cup.
2) Two heaping teaspoons (not a measuring spoon, just the smaller size that you use every day.)
3) One HEAPING spoon (same spoon) of Hershey's cocoa powder. The unsweetened, baking stuff.
4) A little vanilla. I don't know, several drops. Experiment.
5) A bunch of chocolate chips. Which kind is personal preference. You can use milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet, dark chocolate, or any combination. I use about an eighth of a cup, and end up needing a bigger cup to pour the final product into, but it's all to your taste.

So anybody else a bit of a hot chocolate maniac with a favorite recipe? My wife has it with me every time (which was every night for a couple of months during the cold weather), but also likes a cup of milk and a quarter cup of white chocolate chips.

And hey, all serious chocolate discussions are welcome!!

You should try adding coffee flavoring syrups like hazelnut or irish creme Laaa....

Oh sure, all kinds of fun stuff to try. Peanut butter in the mix is nice too. But pure chocolate is fantastic! But if you want other stuff thrown in, that's my recipe for the base of it all.

We have a chain of bakery/delis in Michigan and Ohio called Panera Bread, and they have fantastic hot chocolate. I'm not quite sure what they put in there, but there's definately some cinnamon. To try it with their shortbread cookies is so good it's gotta be some sort of sin!

Hot chocolate and shortbread cookies - HEAVEN ON EARTH!!! I used to work in an Italian Deli and they made hot chocolate with Ghiradelli chocolate. It was the best. But I think any chocolate will do!

Hey duchess, panera.com doesn't list hot chocolate, so I can't see the recipe. Other good stuff though. If you haven't tried chai, I love it! But I'm not a a coffee lover.

And yeah, shortbread is da bomb! One of the great non-chocolate things to eat!

I met my hub for lunch at Panera Bread today. I asked them about their hot chocolate and they said that it was steamed milk, chocolate, and spices, topped with whipped cream and more chocolate.
They didn't identify the spices, but I KNOW one of them is cinnamon.

What is Panera Bread? A restaurant? A coffee house?

I didn't know that Panera had hot chocolate either. But I can't say that I've looked. I occasionally swing by there for a loaf of bread, I'll have to check it out.

Although, my hot chocolate preparation consists of opening the canister of Swiss Miss and putting two scoops of mix in the hot water.

Thanks for the update, duchess. Spicing up hot chocolate is a scary thing for me. As Murphy said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I occasionally do cinnamon, and it's very good.

Damelon wrote:Although, my hot chocolate preparation consists of opening the canister of Swiss Miss and putting two scoops of mix in the hot water.

Everywhere I go I run into blasphemers!!!

Damelon, I didn't know that they had Panera Bread in Illinois/Wisconsin. The little cards only list addresses in Ohio and Michigan, but I'm glad you have one near you!
Caamora, it is a bakery with all sorts of wonderful breads, brownies, cookies, bagels, etc. It is also a deli with great sandwiches (made on thick slabs of bread from the bakery), wonderful huge salads, and soup. I love the baked potato and the cheddar broccoli soups! And you can even get your soup in a freshly baked bread bowl. Yummmy!
And it's a couple doors down from a huge bookstore!

Fist and Faith wrote:

Damelon wrote:Although, my hot chocolate preparation consists of opening the canister of Swiss Miss and putting two scoops of mix in the hot water.

Everywhere I go I run into blasphemers!!!

I knew that would boil your kettle of water...eh milk.

Dutchess - They opened a Panera in the next town last year. Although they've been around for 3-4 in the area.

Duchess, it sounds wonderful! We have very little of that here in California. Everything here is very cookie-cutter and milktoast! The only place I can find really good soup in a sourdough breadbowl is at Disneyland. Of course, we have the best mexican food here (short of Mexico, of course) but most of our restaurants and bakeries are chain establishments and not worth much!

In Milford, PA, is a place called Holly's Soup Creations & More. The Soup Nazi wishes he had soup like these folks! Every day there are 8 different soups. They always have Chili and a chicken soup (with noodles, or rice, or orzo, etc), but the other six each day are very different. One of my favorites is Buffalo Chicken Soup. It tastes like Buffalo chicken wings, but in soup form. Incredible! Also eggplant parmesan soup, shrimp & lobster bisque (they don't put in the shrimp and lobster until you order it), Hungarian mushroom soup, Savannah bisque, chicken pot pie soup (they throw in the pastry pieces when you order it), Big Fat Greek Wedding Soup (they throw in the feta when you order), etc etc etc etc etc.

I'm telling you!!

This is completely unrelated, sort of, but this weekend in Jonesboro I ate at a restaurant called Ta Molly's, mexican obviously....the BEST cheesecake ever, and I am a cheesecake freak. THey drizzled chocolate on top, that tasted like Hershey's syrup to my trained tongue, but that cheesecake was att least 6 inches tall and heavenly...yow...Vetoni's, an italian place, has good cheesecake in lots of flavors including key lime which I have yet to try...but this TaMolly's was just da bomb...

I`m just trying to stay away from all chocolate after the debarcle with the 1kg chocolate easter egg - withdrawal symptoms are pretty bad

But Hot Chocolate is the topic. My mother has this great home made mix. It has a hint of cinnamon to it. Yummmm…. I think I have the recipe for it, maybe I’ll post it.

Maybe you'd better!

Oh yeah... I'm already drooling.

I'll email her and see if she will send it.