Stove Top Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Dippers

This Stove Top Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Dippers taste delicious together! It’ll become your favorite drink to come home to after a long day! Winter time is the perfect time to make a warm cup of hot chocolate to snuggle up with.

Personal tips on this hot chocolate

Hot chocolate by itself is great, but it gets even better when you make it on the stove-top and add some marshmallows and a peppermint spoon. If you don’t like peppermint, don’t worry. Use a different kind of marshmellows, or leave it as is. Delicious anyhow!

I even made them extra extra chocolatey with a chocolate dipper. I didn’t use all of the dippers for this shoot, so I saved the extra and made some hot chocolate a few nights later with a mug of hot milk. They turned out great as the primary source of chocolate. It was an extra special treat at the end of a long day.

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Simple Ingredients, great Result

All you need for this incredibly delicious easy hot chocolate recipe are a few simple ingredients:

• Chocolate powder: Use unsweetened powder or real actual chocolate. Read more in the next section.
• Milk: Best is whole milk, but you can also substitute with almond milk, coconut milk (for a more exotic flavor, or even water (for saving calories). Adding heavy cream results in a richer texture.
• Sugar, if desired: If you use sweetened condensed milk, add sugar to taste. Substitute with brown sugar or even caramel syrup to get a caramel taste (ever tried goat milk caramel?).
• Some vanilla: Use pure vanilla extract for your convenience, or use a real, slit vanilla bean. Let simmer in the milk for about 10 minutes, then add chocolate and the other ingredients.
• Cinnamon: Add some cinnamon on top of the hot chocolate in your favorite cup or add a cinnamon stick while cooking the drink.
• A pinch of salt: Every sweet dish needs a little bit of salt to create a balance and complexity.

For a subtle hint of peppermint, we use candy canes as sticks for the dippers. This allows everyone to determine the amount of mint in the drink. If one of your guests or family doesn’t like peppermint, do a few without candy cane sticks and use regular lollipop sticks instead.

For simplicity, I sometimes use sweetened condensed milk, which is high in fat and rich in flavor. Add as much milk as you want to make it taste good. Toop it with mini marshmellows and you are good to go!

What’s the best Chocolate to use?

You can adapt our recipe by substituting cocoa powder with different kinds of chocolate.

Dark chocolate shavings: For an indulgent twist, try replacing the cocoa powder with dark or milk chocolate shavings. They will melt into the hot milk, infusing it with an intense chocolate flavor and a slightly bitter note.

Using a chocolate bar instead of cocoa powder will result in a more velvety hot chocolate. Break the bar into pieces, it will melt smoothly, creating a decadent texture.

If you’re debating between dark and milk chocolate: As always, it fully depends on your taste. Dark chocolate will lend a more intense chocolate flavour with a bitter note. Milk chocolate on the other hand will add more sweetness and a more subtle taste.

Last but not least: The use of Chocolate syrup: Syrup is a convenient way of adding flavour to various dishes. Using it for your homemade hot chocolate is an easy way to do. But it may not add the depth of flavor, that this winter chocolate drink needs. As chocolate syrup usually contains of different ingredients, along with artificial aromas which may not provide the best result.

I recommend: If you go for a homemade chocolate treat like this, do it from scratch. Use real chocolate or unsweetened (baking) cocoa powder.

What to do with leftovers?

Leftover hot chocolate (if this is even possible! :-D) can be used in several ways. Consider turning it into a mocha by adding a shot of espresso for a sweet morning treat. Or freeze it in ice cube trays to make hot chocolate ice cubes that can be used to chill and flavor iced coffee or milk.

It can also be used as a base for a chocolate sauce by reducing it over low heat and adding a touch of cream or butter for binding. This sauce can be drizzled over cakes, crumbles, ice cream, pancakes, or waffles.

Now enjoy your homemade easy peasy hot chocolate with a minty twist!

 

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