A new favorite hot chocolate recipe

Hot chocolate is one of my favorite comfort foods, and I’ve figured out how to improve on it (at least I like it even better myself with those enhancements).

Last year (I think), I wrote about curried hot chocolate. Basically, I added curry and garam masala in various proportions (I like half and half) to my sugar-free hot chocolate mix (with a bit of milk added). I’ve been drinking it like this ever since. Until…

Recently, I discovered something new that I like even better:

Chinese Five Spice mix.

Same basic recipe, just add that Chinese Five Spice mix to the hot chocolate.

Yummmm!

And here’s a bonus (and this is the reason why I found the Five Spice mix in the first place): It contains star anise, a spice that has a powerful immune strengthening function and seems especially effective against swine flu (though please don’t take medical advice from me — I’m a doctor of philosophy, not a doctor of medicine).

Anyway, I went out looking for star anise, and since I couldn’t find it by itself, I got Chinese Five Spice. And since I was trying to use it as much as possible, I put it in my hot chocolate. And… Yumm!

And if you read the post below on swine flu prevention, you’ll discover an immediate connection and an excuse to enjoy your 5 spice hot chocolate often!

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered another winning combination (although I will try not to overdo it in spite of its yumminess, as I’ll explain below):

General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe — enhanced with Chinese Five Spice.

OOOOhh. Double Yumm!

Unfortunately, that Gerneral foods stuff contains a few substances I’d rather avoid (Including aspartame (I like sugar-free) to partially hydrogenated oils (yuck! trans fats!).

Sure, it claims there are no transfats in there, but we know better. They’re allowed to say “No Trans Fats” if there’s less than half a gram in there per, uhm, “serving.”

The thing is that according to them, one serving is 6-8oz of coffee. Who has just 6-8 oz of such a ymmy treat when we’re used to Starbucks ventis?

I think just one mug has at least 2-3 times as much, and what if I want seconds? So you can triple the transfat load, and maybe double that, and now you’re looking at 3 grams of the stuff!

So I’m trying to keep a lid on it, somewhat, and save it for a special treat.

Meanwhile, hot chocolate it is — prepared according to my new favorite hot chocolate recipe.

Enjoy!

Elisabeth

P.S.: What’s YOUR favorite hot chocolate recipe??? Please share in the comments section.

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3 thoughts on “A new favorite hot chocolate recipe

  1. Helen

    Hey there, I was reading your post and I just wanted to say thank you for putting out such excellent content. There’s so much junk on the internet these days its difficult to find anything worthwhile. I actually have cooked this recipe before, I got this book last month on recommendation from a friend http://ninjahq.com/go/cookingrecipes and it turned out really nice! I’m very eager to try your variation of it though, it looks excellent. I think you might enjoy those recipes, they’re very good. Thanks for the article and great ideas.

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