White Hot Chocolate with Raspberry Syrup

Hear hear to snow, winter, boots, coats, wet pant cuffs, snotty noses, snow shovels and icey car windows! And cheers to hot chocolate so sweet and rich that you are grateful that summer is long gone.

When I put this recipe together, it was an ideal afternoon. I put Son One and Son Two down for a nap first. Then I went to the wood stove, added more wood and got the fire blazing. Then I went to the kitchen and pulled out all of my ingredients. The snow was falling heavily outside and piling up on the already 8 inches of fallen snow. Once my hot chocolate was finished and I had polished off a cup of it, I left the kitchen a mess, climbed into my warm bed where Son One was still napping and I fell asleep for 2 hours. It was blissful. Thank you to my two young sons and their incredible ability to take naps.

See the picture below? Don't worry. I am not so pretentious as to serve hot chocolate in a glass goblet. I just put it in one for the picture so that you could see the full effect. Once the picture was taken, I dumped everything into an ugly coffee mug, added more raspberry syrup and drank it all up. And it was good, just so you know.



For the hot chocolate:
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/4 cup whole milk
8 oz chopped white chocolate
Whipped cream, from the grocery store or homemade

In a medium saucepan over medium low heat, add heavy cream and whole milk. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally. Once bubbling, whisk in white chocolate. Whisk until chocolate is melted and incorporated.

Pour into mugs, being sure to leave room at the top for whipped cream. Scoop on or pipe on whipped cream and drizzle with raspberry syrup.

Yields 4 servings.

Rookie's Notes: White chocolate not your shtick? By all means, use milk, semi-sweet or bittersweet or a combination of them.

For the syrup:
1 12 oz bag of frozen raspberries, thawed
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add raspberries. Bring to a simmer while breaking up the berries with a rubber scraper or wooden spoon. Once simmering, add sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Mix to combine. Pour cornstarch mixture into the raspberry mixture. Stir quickly, until thickened. Remove from heat and pour raspberry mixture into a fine mesh strainer over a small bowl. Press the mixture through the strainer with a rubber scraper to separate the seeds from the syrup. Discard the seeds. Pour syrup into a squeeze bottle. Drizzle over finished hot chocolate.

Yields about 1 cup of syrup.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: HEAD ON OVER TO REMARKS FROM SPARKS AND ANSWER THIS QUESTION.