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You ever have one of those moments when out of the blue you're triggered with an old time memory and all the feels of that time come flooding back? As I was standing out in the snow the other day while taking my dog potty, I momentarily had a flashback to my elementary school days when we'd spend hours out in the snow, and when we'd finally venture back indoors, mom would have a huge pot of homemade hot cocoa simmering on the stove waiting to warm us up. In a world where convenience is king, I think the comfort of homemade was lost somewhere along the way. Sure, grabbing a pack of powdered cocoa mix is quick and usually satisfying, but absolutely nothing tops putting a few quality ingredients together to make a recipe that's not only superior in flavor, but also has the potential to create life long memories. When the dog and I came back inside, I decided to make a pot of my own hot chocolate, but mom always used dutch process cocoa, which I didn't have on hand. So, I went on the hunt for a suitable recipe for pantry items that I did already have in the house and went with the Ultimate Hot Chocolate recipe from Golden Blossom Honey.
What drew me to this recipe was that it required no powdered mix or processed cocoa to complete, and bonus, you could easily turn this into a boozy hot chocolate for adults. Winner, winner! Using chocolate chips or chocolate pieces made this hot chocolate much smoother and richer than its powdered mix counterpart. Leave the alcohol out for the children, or ladle theirs into mugs and add the alcohol before serving to adults. To make it a bit more decadent, I'll rim the mugs with a chocolate ganache, and with or without the booze, I always go for a generous heaping of whipped cream on top dusted with chocolate shavings. Yum! This recipe definitely hits the spot on a cold winter night.
Ingredients
4 cups milk1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons Kahlua, Amaretto or Chambord
whipped cream, if desired
If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey, and be sure to Pin It on Pinterest!
What's a recipe from your childhood you'd like to revisit?
Looks yummy. I haven’t had hot chocolate in years. Peanut butter criss cross cookies was the first recipe I remember helping my mom make, so it’s special to me. I’d love to revisit fruitcake muffins, but no one would eat them in this house except me. Boo!
ReplyDeleteI swear, I was just thinking about peanut butter cookies from my childhood, too! We were really poor growing up so there wasn’t a lot of food in the house to choose from, but there was always pb cookie ingredients in the house, so my sister and I made those all the time. I’m pretty sure it was the first cookie recipe I learned to make as well.
DeleteI’d probably pass on the fruitcake muffins too, but I feel like that would be a really pretty muffin to photograph!
I've never had me a hot chocolate in my life, but it looks positively sinful especially the way you took the photo with browns and blues. What is that cake on the right?
ReplyDeleteWhy haven’t you had hot chocolate? It’s easy and cheap enough to make your own. If you don’t have the powdered mix there, I can send you some in your next goodie box.
DeleteThat’s a block of chocolate, not a cake. I use it when I need to shave off ribbon curls or use my grater to dust chocolate over drinks and desserts. I have a big hunk of white chocolate too, but that doesn’t get used as much as the dark chocolate bar.
Because milk has always been deadly dangerous for me and we never got any sweet or comfort treats as kids in my family other than potatoes boiled in their skin for dinner once in a few years LOL Geezuz, I had an Oliver Twist childhood..... LOL
DeleteMariah and I use almond milk when we have hot chocolate because we can’t tolerate dairy milk. There’s no difference in flavor. Some people even use water when using powder mixes, but I can’t get behind that. I think our Oliver Twist childhoods make us appreciate the finer things in life as adults.
DeleteMemories do just hit once in a whole indeed. Blah to snow though lol Adding a little kick would sure be a win with many an adult.
ReplyDeleteSome day I feel like you and are are going to cross paths when we both relocate far away from the snow. Blah, indeed!
Deletehahaha where we moving to? Not sure warm places support farm living lol
DeleteI thought Bora Bora was on the list? We’ll start a new trend. Hot weather farming. I mean, if hot yoga can catch on, why not tropical farming? Lol
DeleteThis looks so delicious. It surely is a nostalgic recipe, even for me, but if it wasn't, it looks DIVINE!
ReplyDeleteMy childhood memories were full of pasta and meatballs and everything parmesan. I'm lucky to say that my family still makes these recipes often except now I do too. The only one that we don't make anymore and that I think of every Fall is fried cardone (pronounced gar-doo-na). If I was ever able to find some in the stores, I think I would buy dozens of them because I really do miss it!
And you’ll pass those family recipes down to your kids some day too, making them the best kind of recipes for lifetimes of memories! I have never heard of cardone (apparently autocorrect hasn’t either because it keeps trying to change it lol) so now I’m off to google to learn something new.
DeleteOk, so it looks like celery but is more related to artichoke? Interesting! I wonder why I’ve never seen it in our stores. Does it perish too quickly the way fresh figs do and that’s why it’s hard to find?
DeleteI don't think figs are so hard to find everywhere as Angie just had fresh ones in her recipe last week, in the middle of winter, and she is in Germany. I haven't seen them here, though, but it is not like I have been looking for them LOL
DeleteHere in my country even bananas, oranges and tangerines are terrible, we get the worst sorts that the rest of the world won't buy and they are still expensive here. Because of the political turmoils, upcoming elections and organised crime on power, prices of everything have been going up drastically, so we are facing a massive inflation. It is terrible, before this government lemons were 40 dinars a kilo, now they are close to 300 dinars! It is shocking and nobody cares.
I have no idea! Growing up, that was our fall treat. We would all spend hours in the kitchen pulling out the string like flesh in the vegetable. Then my mom would bread it and fry it. It's so delicious and satisfying that it's as filling meat. Another thing I miss is when my great aunt would make the battered zucchini flowers. One year we grew zucchini and I swore that I would try to make it on my own, but couldn't find the recipe for the batter. That's another thing we can't find anywhere in stores. To add a third, cucuzza is near impossible to find but we grow our own. The stores got too streamlined now that they're all big chains.
DeleteSadly, you're right about how stores are just too streamlined and only carry what they can sell in mass quantities. I think that's why I like shopping farmers markets so much. You can usually get more unique finds over the chain stores. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for all of these this summer. It sounds like you had a very flavorful childhood!
DeleteI can't stand hot chocolate with water, always milk. that's the good stuff
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
DeleteUy que rica receta la hare pronto te mando un beso
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteChocolate base snacks, foods and drinks are my favourite. My kids and I love Hot chocolate very much. Looks great. Presentation is perfect. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThank you, friend!
DeleteI love the flavor of amaretto but you don’t see people use it much. The presentation on these is great too!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rosey ♥
DeleteHot chocolate is so at the ready. Most people who cook probably have the ingredients you've listed at any given time! I'm not sure why we don't have it every day.
ReplyDeleteEvery day sounds good to me! Now, I just need someone to make it for me daily and then I'd be all set LOL
DeleteI love hot chocolate during cold season like now... love it.
ReplyDeleteMe too :)
DeleteThat sounds like it would be good.
ReplyDeleteLooks yum 😁!
ReplyDeleteDreamy - Totally Dreamy - Also, Hows The Little One In Colorado These Days - Sending Positive Vibes Your Way
ReplyDeleteCheers
OMG this look so good!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to revisit my mom's meatballs and red gravy recipe. I should have paid more attention when she made it.