It's that time of year when influencers post pictures of those over the top mugs of hot chocolate. I'm going to help you do that! AND maybe even one up said influencer! I spent a few too many hours on Pinterest one day and found an abundance of aesthetically pleasing cups of cocoa. Eventually, I decided that I'd share my own cup of aesthetic and get a blog post out of it. On Thanksgiving Day, I wanted to start a new holiday tradition. My cousin was coming over that day, but we were not going to be celebrating until Saturday. However, I wanted to somehow make the day special. Thus, the hot chocolate bar was born.
To begin, I needed to find a nice recipe that could serve more than a few people (since my entire family loves to feed a crowd). I could have spent a while experimenting with measurements and such, but I decided that I'd just spend some more time on good old Pinterest. Almost immediately, I found a recipe that had good amounts of different ingredients and decided to go with that one. You can find it here.
The crockpot was pulled out and I measured everything out and into the pot it went. I had gone the "all milk chocolate" route because my brothers and mom tend to prefer a sweeter chocolate. After a whole mug of it, I honestly wish that I had gone half and half using semi sweet and milk chocolate. It was a little rich for my liking. With the milk, heavy cream, and sweetened condensed milk, I would have preferred a little more of a bitter chocolate.
The recipe lists all of the liquid ingredients before the chocolate so I put everything in the pot as listed. My advice would be to add the chocolate before the liquid ingredients. When adding the chocolate, the little chips splashed milk in all directions (including all over me). It took a little longer than I thought to melt the chocolate so I turned up the heat a bit. Once all the chocolate was melted, I found that whisking it didn't really help all that much when I was trying to completely incorporate the chocolate into the milk. So out came my favorite tool in the kitchen, the immersion blender. After a bit, the mixture was chocolatey and so smooth that it could have been liquid silk.
Since I like food presented in a good looking way (thanks to my Chef Dad), I pulled out a bunch of silver bowls to present my myriad of toppings. I didn't really buy an awful lot ahead of time, so I had to use a bunch of what I already had in the pantry. I had peanut butter powder (for those who may want a Reese's touch), sprinkles, chopped peppermint candy, the classic mini marshmallows, candy canes, Starbucks Peppermint Syrup, whipped cream, and good old crème de menthe. It wasn't anything super fancy, but it was well enjoyed by my family and I. You could really do anything you want too! I really wish that I had bought some pearlescent silver powder. That would have made it look super wintery and a little bit magical. I also would have loved to put some shaved chocolate on top. 😍
Of course, once lunch was had and I had finished preparing, we sat around table with our mugs of cocoa. The whipped cream towering above the cups, marshmallows stacked up high, and sprinkles anointing the whipped peaks. I could have easily made my cup of hot chocolate in my much larger Starbucks mug, but I wanted to use my smaller Agents of SHIELD mug.
I think that this new tradition of a hot chocolate bar is a hit, and that it will continue for years to come. After all the things that have changed, we could use some new traditions. Now that I've got one "hot chocolate bar holiday" under my belt, I am doomed to one up myself year after year now. As every other thing I've done before. This year wasn't super "Insta worthy," but since it was my first hot chocolate bar, I'll call it practice.
Thank you SO much for reading. It means so much to me that you do! Keep an eye out for a post on this site eight days from now (a super easy way to be notified is to follow or subscribe 😉), or for a post four days from now on She Be Fierce 2!
Until next time,
KS
- where did you buy the BEST host chocolate you've ever tasted?
- what are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
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