At Christmas time I love to turn everyday life into festive moments. One of my personal traditions is to make all kinds of hot cocoa.to enjoy while watching a Christmas movie. So today I would like to share three of my hot cocoa recipes with you, so that you can step up your hot cocoa game. They are fun, warming and be warned, very bad for your diet. Also note that I don’t drink cows milk and only use vegan milk, but that doesn’t mean you have to as well. If you don’t like to use real chocolate it’s fine to use cocoa powder or vice versa. However don’t melt the chocolate chunks directly in your milk above heat but instead melt them au bain marie first (in a water bath). This enables you to measure according to taste and also prevents burning or lumps.
Hot chocolate with orange
What I love about this recipe is the combination of sweet and tangy flavours with a hint of spice from the cinnamon. Spooning up the whipped cream with the orange zest is such a delight!
You’ll need (for 1)
- Soy milk (or dairy)
- 1 sweet orange, juiced
- Small piece of orange peel
- Whipped cream
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Hot chocolate powder or 50 gr of melted chocolate chunks
- A grater
Directions
Warm the milk till boiling point with a small piece of orange peel
Discard the orange peel
Take of heat and whisk in the melted chocolate/cocoa powder
Whisk in the juice of ½ orange, more if needed (matter of taste)
Pour in glass
Stir shortly with a cinnamon stick for flavour
Top with whipped cream
Use grater to add some orange zest on top
Hot chocolate with strawberries
This recipe is a favourite among kids, especially girls who love everything pink. Don’t eat the marshmallows before letting them melt in your hot chocolate.
You’ll need (for 2)
- Soy milk (or other)
- 145 gr strawberries (I used canned in syrup because in winter fresh strawberries are expensive and flavourless)
- marshmellows
- whipped cream
- 50 gr melted white chocolate chunks
- teaspoon of vanilla essence
- a blender
- a whisk
Directions
melt the white chocolate au bain marie
meanwhile separate the strawberries from the syrup, save the syrup for later
mash the strawberries in a blender till smooth
warm up the soy milk till boiling point and take of heat
whisk in one or two table spoons of melted white chocolate (according to taste)
whisk in the vanilla essence
whisk in the strawberry mash
pour in mugs
top with whipped cream, marshmellows and a drizzle of strawberry syrup
Hot chocolate with amaretto
This warming drink is for adults only 🙂 and perfect on cold winter nights or as a night cap before turning in. It’s my absolute favourite and super simple to make. Although you can use other milk alternatives too, I like it best with almond milk since amaretto is also an almond liqueur. I like to stick to the almond theme if you get me. What I love most about this recipe is spooning up the whipped cream with the almond slivers and cinnamon and then quickly take a sip of the spiked chocolate milk.
You’ll need
- almond milk
- cocoa powder/50 gr of chocolate chunks melted
- almond slivers
- a splash of amaretto liqueur (=almond liqueur)
- whipped cream
- cinnamon powder
Directions
warm milk till boiling point
mix with cocoa powder
pour in amaretto liqueur according to taste
top with whipped cream
sprinkle with cinnamon and almond slivers
