Mexican Hot Chocolate

All this time and not a single bit of chocolate has appeared on this blog. Criminal! I have been baking, oh yes. There have been cookies. Batches and batches of them. And yet they have shied away from appearing here. They get embarrassed in the limelight, those cookies. They like to stay out of the way. Someday I will bring them center stage. But for now, I bring you hot chocolate. The recipe comes from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, from the section on Mexican cooking by Lisa Wichman. Next time I make this, I am adding more chocolate. The recipe is terrific as it is, but I like that thick, dark drinking chocolate that tastes like sipping a melted chocolate bar. As is, the hot chocolate is a creamy decadence with hints of cinnamon and vanilla. It is dessert all by itself.


Mexican Hot Chocolate
from Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant

2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. In a separate pot, heat the milk and the cream on low heat until hot but not boiling. When the milk is hot, slowly add a little bit of it to the chocolate until you have a thin paste. Stir in the rest of the milk and cream, the sugar, and the cinnamon.

In a bowl beat the egg and vanilla with a rotary beater (I used a whisk instead). Add a very little of the hot chocolate to the egg (you don't want to "fry" the egg in the hot chocolate) and stir the egg mixture into the hot chocolate. With the double boiler still on low heat, beat the chocolate with a rotary beater (or whisk) for about 3 minutes. Serve immediately.