Well, it took until February 15 to reach the last of the new recipes used during our family Christmas celebration. It may take longer than that to lose the weight gained from sampling all those new dishes.
But let’s not go there.
Today’s recipe came about by accident. We didn’t celebrate Christmas with the kids until New Year’s Weekend, so a few days before they arrived, I made a Wal-Mart run to see if any post-Christmas bargains remained. I hit the motherlode in the aisle where the Christmas baking items had been marked down by 50% – including Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Squares and Ghirardelli chocolate baking chunks which the local grocery stores were selling at full price.
Score!
I picked up bags of everything and used them for stocking stuffers, which our foodie kids absolutely loved. However, they weren’t sure what to do with the Bakers unsweetened baking squares. But I remembered how my mom occasionally used the unsweetened squares to make hot chocolate. So I found a recipe for rich ‘n thick hot chocolate online. The recipe sounded so rich and thick, I doubled the amount of milk and halved the sugar.
And guess what?
It was still plenty rich, thick, and sweet. It was also as delicious as Mom’s used to be. Now, without further ado, here is the recipe…which is much shorter than the introduction to it.
Plenty Rich ‘N Thick Hot Chocolate
1 cup water
2 ounces Bakers unsweetened baking chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
6 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Place water and chocolate in cereal bowl. Microwave for 1 minute. Pour into heavy medium saucepan and continue cooking over medium heat. Whisk until mixture is well-blended. Add sugar. Mix well.
Bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring with wire whisk until well-blended. Stir in vanilla. Reduce heat to medium.
Cook until mixture is heated through, stirring occasionally. Serve hot.
