Italian Hot Chocolate

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Nothing spells decadence like a cup of rich and creamy Italian Hot Chocolate. Made with just 5 ingredients it's luxuriously thick, creamy and delicious, like a little piece of chocolate heaven.

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 7

Total Time 17

Servings 2 cups

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

▢ 4 Tablespoons roughly chopped chocolate see notes
▢ 4 Tablespoons cornstarch / cornflour see notes for substitute
▢ 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
▢ 3 Tablespoons white granulated sugar, or to taste see notes
▢ 2 cups whole milk see notes

Instructions

Chop the chocolate (if you are using a slab of chocolate) into small chunks.
Add the sugar to a small pot and sift in the cocoa powder and cornstarch
From your measured milk, scoop out 4 -5 Tablespoons of milk and whisk it with the cocoa powder, cornflour and sugar. Whisk well to form a very smooth paste - like consistency. There should be no visible specks of cornstarch or cocoa powder.
Turn your stove on to a medium low heat. Place the pot onto the heat. Slowly add in the remaining measured milk whisking continuously.
The mixture will start to thicken in about 2 minutes. You will see tiny foamy bubbles forming on the outer edge of the mixture.
When this starts, drop the chocolate into the pot and continue whisking for about 30 seconds or until the mixture becomes smooth, thick and creamy.
Remove the pot from the heat and pour into a mug or cup, serve immediately.

Storage and reheating

Refrigerate the cooled Italian Hot Chocolate in a sealed container for up to 3 days. As it cools the hot chocolate thickens to a pudding, mousse like texture.
You can serve the leftover hot chocolate as a thick, decadent pudding dessert.
Or you could reheat it on the stove. Add in a little warm milk to thin it down a bit. Whisk until warmed through and to your preferred consistency.

Notes

Chocolate: Although dark chocolate (50-70% cocoa) is the best to use for this recipe, not everybody is not a fan of dark chocolate. I would say use dark chocolate if you like or mix in your favorite plain chocolate. It can be chocolate chips, chocolate buttons or simply a roughly chopped plain slab of chocolate. As long as it melts, you good to go.

Cornstarch/cornflour substitute: Plain all-purpose flour is a quick alternative if you do not have corn starch. I have tested this recipe separately with both plain all-purpose flour and cornstarch. While the plain all-purpose flour did thicken the hot chocolate, the melty, creamy texture seemed to be somehow lacking. So, you could use plain all-purpose flour, but I strongly suggest you get all cornflour / cornstarch the for the next time you make this hot chocolate.

Sugar: Sugar adds sweetness to this decadence. If you prefer more or less sweetness, then add sugar accordingly. You could even skip the sugar altogether or add in your own sweetener.

Milk: You can use whole milk or 2%. Any works perfectly fine. If you do not or cannot drink milk, then your plant based, or lactose free milk will make a great substitute.

Nutrition

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