Stovetop Hot Chocolate

Since becoming a mom, it has become oooooh so much harder to leave the house.  My old favorite pastime of going to coffee shops to read or work on lesson plans while sipping on a delicious doctored-up coffee, was replaced by going through the line at the drive-though Starbucks about once a week (for a large decaf caramel mocha.. yum!).  The drive-through Starbucks is at least a good 15 minutes out of my way no matter where I'm headed (and I pass several other coffee shops on the way there), but it was worth it for the drive-through!  I didn't want to expose my tiny, sweet baby to any germs that might be hanging out inside crowded coffee shops, not to mention it takes roughly ten minutes to get him in and out of the car with all of his stuff.  Now that I'm also taking care of a friend's baby during the day, there's no way I'll even be going through the drive-through at Starbucks anytime soon.  Luckily, I have a hot chocolate recipe that's even better than a mocha, in my opinion.  There's no coffee in it, but since I was drinking decaf anyway.. that doesn't matter to me.  Here's the recipe:

Stovetop Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I've also used the special dark cocoa powder, and it's delicious!)

1/2 cup white sugar

dash of salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk

Directions:

Combine the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a pan and whisk it together.  Turn the stove on to medium heat and add the hot water.  Whisk it until it comes to a boil and let it simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn.  After two minutes, you should have a thick chocolate syrup in your pan.  Slowly add 3 1/2 cups of milk, whisking as you go, and let it get really hot but not to a boil.  Pour it into mugs and top off your mugs with that last 1/2 cup of milk to cool it so it's drinkable.  This is enough for 4 small mugs, or 3 large mugs.  It is so good!

I've also made this recipe adding the whole 4 cups of milk to the pan, and then pouring it over frozen whipped topping in my mugs.  Today I made a spicy version by adding a good shake of cinnamon and a smaller dash of cayenne pepper to the pan when I was whisking together the dry ingredients.  If you did want it to taste more like a mocha, I'm thinking you could probably add 1/2 cup of strong hot coffee instead of the hot water.