Hot Chocolate

Use any bar of chocolate you like in this customizable winter warmer.

Enjoy this velvety black sesame and red masa champurrado right off the stove as a dessert, or savor it with the crunchy company of a sugar-encrusted buñuelo.

Champurrado is an atole defined by chocolate; the classic Mexican hot drink is pure winter comfort.

This dairy-free cocoa uses fragrant coconut milk as its base. Dried rose petals bring an extra dose of floral aroma and flavor—not to mention romance.

Cozy up with a mug of this rich, creamy hot chocolate that will warm you up from head to toe.

Cinnamon lends warming complexity to this comforting and creamy cold-weather drink. Want to turn it into a hot cocktail? A splash of rum certainly wouldn't hurt.

This rich and creamy white chocolate has tropical notes thanks to the coconut milk, plus a boost of caffeine and bold green color from matcha powder.

This hot chocolate mix is made with a blend of chocolate and cocoa powder for a rich, decadent flavor and creamy texture.

This is the water-based ganache that we use as the foundation for our hot chocolates and mochas . After extensive tests by our training department, we found that using water (rather than milk or cream) to melt the chocolate yielded the most rich and delicious drinks. We're lucky to have neighbors on both coasts who make chocolate for us; in San Francisco, we use a drinking chocolate made by TCHO, and in New York, we use a single origin dark chocolate made by the Mast Brothers. The type of chocolate you use will affect the strength of the ganache, so you may need to adjust the amount to taste.

Sure, the mocha is often a gateway to other coffee drinks—it just takes some customers longer to move along than others. One of our very first regulars at the Hayes Valley kiosk became so addicted to mochas that, at the apex of his habit, he consumed five mochas in one day, earning the nickname Five Mocha David. Eventually, David moved on to drinking straight black coffee, but he hasn't been able to shake his chocolately moniker. Since the ganache is extra-thick and is used warm, we have to respectfully deny requests for iced mochas; we've found the chocolate will seize up into unsightly globs in a cold and icy environment.
Note: omit the espresso and voilà, you've got a hot chocolate.

These cinnamon-sugar dusted fritters are traditionally dunked in a cup of creamy hot chocolate—and who are we to argue with tradition?

Churros and chocolate have a long history at Lucques, and an even longer one in Spain, where they dominate the dessert scene in late-night cafés. The hot chocolate is made thick and syrupy sweet, meant for dipping the piping-hot crullers. In preparation for one Spanish-themed Sunday supper, my former pastry chef Kimberly Sklar experimented with traditional churro recipes from Spanish cookbooks. Though the flavors were good, the Spanish versions seemed a little too heavy and not tender enough for our liking. Then Kim tried a batch of pâte à choux, the traditional French dough used to make such pastries as cream puffs and éclairs. It was the perfect solution. Next we set out to conquer the chocolate. Again, in my opinion, the traditional Spanish hot chocolate was better in theory than in reality. Spaniards love sugar, and their version is just too sweet for my taste. Still thick and rich in the vein of the traditional chocolate, ours is super-chocolaty but not as cloyingly sweet. I like to add a generous pinch of salt, to play up the bittersweet notes of the chocolate. This is a festive, interactive dessert that requires some last-minute attention when it’s time to fry the churros. Make the batter and hot chocolate ahead, and just before you serve dessert, invite your friends into the kitchen to help you fry. It’s fun to watch the dough transform into deep golden brown snakes and then to roll them in the glittery cinnamon-sugar.

THIS IS TRUE HOT CHOCOLATE——as opposed to cocoa—made by melting chocolate into hot milk. It doesn’t take any longer than hot cocoa to prepare but is a richer and creamier concoction. Top each mug with a dollop of whipped cream, marshmallows, or ground cinnamon, or dunk your favorite cookie into it.

Make sure you don’t skip the last part of this classic—the wonderful frothiness is one of the two things that make Mexican hot chocolate special (the cinnamon is the other). For a great dessert, serve this with Churros (page 655). The chocolate sold in Mexican stores for hot chocolate already contains cinnamon and sugar, so you can just melt it with some milk and beat until frothy. You can actually make it with water if you like, and it isn’t half bad.

Montezuma introduced Cortés to chocolate in the sixteenth century, and the Spaniards immediately began messing around with it. The original Mexican beverage (preceding recipe) was tweaked to suit the tastes of the Spaniards, and their associated versions of hot chocolate remain different to this day. Spanish hot chocolate is incredibly rich and thick—almost like loose pudding—and perfect for dunking Churros (page 655). Some people use cornstarch (or eggs) to thicken their chocolate, but I prefer the natural thickness that comes from melting chocolate into milk.

Schnapps is a strong, colorless alcoholic beverage made from potatoes or grains. Peppermint is the most common flavoring in schnapps, which comes from the German word Schnaps, which means “mouthful.” If you like chocolate-covered mints, this is the drink for you.

Make this when you have invited serious chocoholics to brunch, and keep in mind that the finest hot chocolate starts with the best possible unsweetened chocolate. I use Callebaut or Scharffen Berger. Sweetened condensed milk is a mixture of sugar and whole milk, and it serves here to both thicken and sweeten.