the best hot cocoa in the universe(n.b. do
not attempt this recipe with actual hot chocolate - it's just too rich and sweet that way. this recipe is for jazzing up boring old cocoa powder to EPIC LEVELS)
Ingredients- 3 heaping teaspoons cocoa
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 tablespoon
Southern Black Cherry Mix- 2 1/4 cups whole milk
- whipped cream / mini marshmallows (but not both or else you'll end up having to eat your cocoa with a spoon!)
- rainbow sprinkles (they must be rainbow, or else the epic levels will be tragically lacking)
Directions- Mix cocoa, sugar, and salt in a paper cup, because a paper cup is exactly the right size and you can throw it out afterwards rather than having to actually do dishes. Don't just use your drinking mug because it gets all clumpy and gross and not the best hot cocoa in the universe.
- Pour whole milk into your drinking mug, which should be a big, like, cafe-coffee-mug sized mug that can hold two and a half cups of liquid without threatening to spill it all. College bookstores usually have the perfect size mugs, since college students live on large doses of caffeine.
- Heat the milk in the microwave until it's the temperature you want it - for me that's usually a minute and fifty seconds, but (a) your microwave may vary and (b) I like my cocoa kinda tepid because I have fragile taste buds but you might like yours scalding.
- Pour dry mix into milk a bit at the time, stirring constantly - make sure it's evenly stirred before adding more, because otherwise you get clumpy cocoa bits floating at the top, and cocoa clumps are unsugared and bitter and not the best hot cocoa in the universe.
- When you're done, there's going to be this dusty brown cocoa-sugar film at the bottom and along the pouring side of your paper cup, and maybe some stubborn cocoa clumps at the bottom. Pour the cherry syrup into the paper cup and swish it around to dissolve this last bit of chocolatey goodness, then add it to your serving cup.
- Add the whipped cream or marshmallows. If you have marshmallows, add just enough to cover the entire top of the liquid without, you know, piling it up on top of itself a mile high. There IS such a thing as too much marshmallow! If you have whipped cream, add it in an artistic spiral, because if it's a nest of messy whipped-cream-lines it's not the best hot cocoa in the universe.
- Lastly, add the rainbow sprinkles on top of your white fluffy material of choice.
And there you have it! Southern Black Cherry Mix is the least artificial tasting cherry syrup ever made, and it is delicious and I eat it with everything I possibly can and several things I probably shouldn't. In this recipe, it's
just enough to make the cocoa taste extra-rich and smooth and creamy without your taste buds ever quite making the connection of "this flavor is
cherry".
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