Cold Days, Hot Chocolate

It's gross outside in DC today.  Sleet, rain, and snow.  On a day like this, there are two things that I really want: hot chocolate and soup.

Making hot chocolate from scratch is really not difficult at all.  If you have chocolate syrup, it CAN be as easy as warming up milk and stirring in the syrup.

I don't, so we're gonna work slightly more from scratch.  What I do have is milk, Hershey kisses, Nutella, coffee, and vanilla.  And this is how we're going to do this.

You're going to start by building a double boiler.  This just means putting one pot or bowl over the top of a pot with a small amount of boiling water, making sure the bottom does not touch the water, so only the steam melts your chocolate and warms your mixture.

You're going to add, to the top pot/bowl, one tablespoon of Nutella and two kisses (or a small handful of other chocolate chips or chocolates that you might have).  Whisk this until it melts to an even consistency.

To this mix, add one teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/4 cup of hot coffee.

Whisk until these are evenly combined, then add 3/4 cup of milk.

Continue whisking and heating until it is warm but not boiling.  Pour into your favorite mug.

Optional: finish with a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkle of cinnamon, or a big spoonful of Nutella.