Recipe: Salted caramel hot chocolate

The best winter treat? Hot chocolate. Not just any hot chocolate, but a salted caramel hot chocolate. Because really, you can make a hot chocolate as decadent and delicious as you wish. Since I don’t sweeten my hot cocoa, I like to add in plenty of dollups of whipped cream and caramel sauce. And lately, just to mix things up and make this delicious treat even more satisfying, I’ve been liking to add a bit of salt to my caramel sauce. Let me show you how I make a salted caramel hot chocolate from scratch.

I posted this picture on Instagram the other week and it made me think, why not share my recipe? This baby is completely homemade with organic full fat milk and fair trade cocoa powder (without any additives or sweetners). It requires a bit more work than whacking up a Nesquick but it is much more satisfying and definitely feels like a treat. Apart from the hot chocolate itself, I also make the caramel sauce and whip up the cream myself. For the simple reason that no supermarket near me sells ready made caramel sauce (I know, weird!) and store bought whipped cream comes in these containers that are far too big for just one person having some hot chocolate once in a while.

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 5 minutes. Total: 15 minutes.

This time estimate goes for when you’re trying to make everything for the first time. Once you have a batch of whipped cream and caramel sauce on hand, the process will speed up decidedly.

Ingredients:

Hot chocolate:

• (Organic) Full fat milk (because it simply tastes better and creamier than skim milk)
• 2 – 3 heaping table spoons of cocoa powder (try to find one without additives, I find the fair trade version is the only one that fits the bill)

Caramel sauce:

• 25 grams of butter (I go for organic, unsalted butter)
• 25 grams of light brown sugar
• 25 ml cream
• 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of salt (optional)

Whipped cream:

• Whatever is left of your cream in the container once you’ve taken out the 25 mls for your caramel sauce.
• 1 sachet ‘Klop-fix’ (which is a product sold to help you get fluffy and thick whipped cream more quickly. It’s basically sugar)
• 1 sachet vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract or a vanilla pod if you’d prefer that) (optional as it’s for flavor purposes mostly)

I’m pretty sure you can use regular sugar to help your whipped cream to come together, but I like these as it gives some extra flavor to your whipped cream.

Tools:

• scales (excuse how dirty mine is, but I’ve had it for 10 years and it’s on the fringes of dying on me, but as long as it works, right?)
• a sauce pan
• a whisk
• a hand mixer (optional, but it makes life so much easier, or you’ll get a free workout to boot)
• a table spoon measurement
• a tea spoon measurement
• a dessert spoon
• a mixing bowl
• a small bowl
• your favorite hot chocolate mug

And then it’s ready to get started. I use the same pan to make both the sauce and the hot chocolate to save on dishes. So here it goes!

Step 1: make your caramel sauce

1. Measure 25 grams of butter, light brown sugar and 25 ml of cream.
2. Put the cream in a thick bottom pan together with your sugar.
3. Turn on the heat to medium – high and melt together (not too high, you want the sugar to melt, but not to burn)
4. Add the butter and keep stirring to melt it into the sugar/ cream mixture
5. Take off heat and stir in your preferred amount of salt until it has dissolved. (optional)

Step 2: Whip your cream

1. Add the remaining cream from the container to a mixing bowl
2. Add in your klop fix & vanilla sugar
3. Use a mixer or whisk to turn it into a thick and fluffy whipped cream

Step 3: the hot chocolate

1. Pour some milk into the mug you’ll be using. Fill it until you have half an inch left at the top.
2. Pour into pan.
3. Put on medium to high heat (again, you don’t want to burn the milk, but I find that if you stir it enough that won’t happen).
4. Add in however much cocoa you like. I go with 2 – 3 heaping tablespoons depending on the size of my mug. This mug usually takes 2.
5. Stir together with a whisk.
6. Keep whisking as the milk heats up and try to get rid of cocoa lumps as much as you can.

Step 4: Bring it together

1. Pour hot chocolate into your mug.
2. Top off with a few generous scoops of whipped cream and a few swirls of caramel sauce
3. Stir together and enjoy!

I hope you like this warm, wintery and cozy drink as much as I do. It has most certainly been my favorite late night treat as of late and of course perfect for Christmas time. Just think of yourself on the couch with a hot mug of this cocoa and your favorite Christmas movie while wearing your coziest sweater. And if you really want to up the anti, you can always pour in a bit of rum… Christmas was never this good! I would love to see if you try making this yourself.

What’s your favorite Christmas drink?