Chocolate and Christmas just naturally go together. And hot chocolate is perfect treat for warming holiday guests on a cold winter day. Everybody has tried dark hot chocolate, but white hot chocolate is a creamy and sweet and a little bit different treat for your holiday guests.
High quality white chocolate will have cocoa butter as one of its ingredients and not just palm kernel oil, cottonseed oil, or other fats. It is the cocoa butter that gives it a chocolatey flavor.
White Chocolate Drink
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa or freshly grated nutmeg
4 vanilla beans (optional)
Heat the milk and cream to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the white chocolate. Let sit for 3 to 5 minutes to melt the chocolate.
Add the vanilla extract. Whisk vigorously to a froth and to dissolve the chocolate completely.
Pour into four mugs or bowls (very European) and sprinkle with cocoa or nutmeg. Serve with a vanilla bean as a stirrer, if desired.
You can find good-quality white chocolate in many large supermarkets. Look on the shelves next to the chocolate chips, in the baking ingredient aisle. Ghirardelli is a good brand.
Per serving: Calories 430 (From Fat 288); Fat 32g (Saturated 20g); Cholesterol 79mg; Sodium 115mg; Carbohydrate 29g Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 8g.
