Hot Chocolate

Since the first winter chill hit the air you’ve been asking for sugar-free Hot Chocolate to warm you up, and lest you thought I had forgotten you, I can assure you I most certainly have not.  It’s just been a busy time in Bookland since the week before Thanksgiving, and the last couple of weeks I’ve been busily catching up on life and seemingly never-ending to-do lists.  I’ve been on a bit of a purge around Marmalade HQ.  I almost called Goodwill ahead of time to warn them to clear a space.  I do love a good purge.

So I finally stopped long enough to reach for a pot, along with some dark chocolate, and got busy making you hot cocoa while there’s still some winter left to warm up.  Mind you, once you taste this I think you might be drinking it all year long – or at least whenever you get a chocolate craving – because boy oh boy is this stuff rich and chocolaty.  Then, just as I was about to sit here and write about it, I loped outside with the recycling and didn’t come back in for an hour because I was sitting on the patio sunning myself.  In Seattle!  In January!!  JANUARY!!!  As I sat there in the lawn chair I shut my eyes and it felt exactly like summer, except I was wearing too many clothes, but to my face it was slap bang in the middle of July; without the lawn mowers of course, because while it might look like summer today, there sure ain’t any grass growing yet.  I am thrilled to report, however, that I have pansies, sage, chives, and irises all poking their little heads through the soil and that makes me so happy I can barely stand it.

It was quite the ordeal, dragging myself back inside to write on here, but now I’m settled in at my desk, peppermint tea at hand, I’m ready.  I’ve missed you.  I’ve missed writing in this space.  I’m excited to get back to my non-book-writing routine of 3 posts a week.  I’m excited to create stuff and share it with you.  And although it feels a little odd writing about Hot Chocolate when I have just come inside from an hour’s sunbathing, I think it’s a good place to start.  Something easy, something instant, something so totally decadently scrumptious that you’ll wonder why you waited so long to go sugar-free.

I should likely warn you that this is some seriously rich, thick, creamy chocolate goodness.  If you’ve ever been to Paris and had Chocolat Chaud – think that – and you’ll know what to expect.  If you’re used to the watery, faintly-chocolate-tasting liquid that comes out of mixing a powdered mix with hot water, then you’re in for a real surprise, or shock, depending on how you look at it.  This sugar-free Hot Chocolate is not for the faint of heart.  It is also not for those of you who like a huge ol’ mug full of warm beverage.  This recipe makes enough for 4, because a small cup of this at one sitting is enough chocolate for the most die-hard chocolate fanatic.  There should be a law surrounding the chocolate-y-ness of hot chocolate, and I’ll leave you to guess which ones I would ban as unsuitable for human consumption.

It’s true that there’s nothing inventive about Hot Chocolate, but sometimes just making the classics healthy is enough; no wheel-reinvention required.  If you want you can make this whole recipe and then heat up just enough for 1 cup at a time, keeping the rest in the ‘fridge.  I like doing that {much} better than fiddling with saucepans and fractions of cans of coconut milk every day.  You could even just have a cup of this instead of dessert.  If you think hard enough you can taste a slight coconutty twang in this Hot Chocolate, so if you’re a anti-coconut-flavor type person, then add 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon to your cup and stir until it is dissolved.

Now then, off you go to chocolate nirvana.  You can find the same chocolate that I used here.