Mmmm, hot chocolate. That sweet nectar of the gods. That velvety feeling of goodness warming you from the neck down. Perfect on those cold winter and fall nights or when you get a chill in the summer.

We have fans. It’s very difficult to regulate a uniform temperature in my house.

Anyway, if you’re not already sold on hot chocolate, you must not like chocolate, and since I don’t know how to imagine that, I cannot sympathize with you. Now. On to the recipe!

We are making hot chocolate from scratch. I think that contrasts nicely with the pasta dish we made from a bottle the other day, don’t you?

Ingredients

• 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa
• 3 tsp white granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tsp hot water (or cold, it doesn’t really matter, I just had hot water on hand and hot is easier to work with than cold)
• milk
• ~1/2 tsp vanilla
• creme or half and half or evaporated milk

Instructions

1. Mix cocoa, white sugar, brown sugar, and salt into the mug of your choice.

The cocoa is for chocolate flavour, the white sugar is to sweeten, the brown sugar is to sweeten with flavour, and the salt is to bring out the sweet taste. Ironic, but it’s a trick I learned. It works, trust me.

2. Pour water in cup and turn into a wet paste.

You’ve got to make sure you rub it all in, because the cocoa likes to stay a powder. This takes a couple of minutes, and it’s very tempting to add more water, but don’t do it. You can walk around, humming to yourself, and show your progress to your boyfriend who is watching the Lakers win, but Doug! Doug! Look! Look what I did!

3. Add milk in your cup, filling it but leaving room at the top, and mix until relatively smooth.

Milk expands about 5% when heated, according to the Internet. If you can’t get your creamy chocolaty mixture to mix completely with the milk, don’t worry too much about it. I sure didn’t. When you heat your cup up, it’ll all melt and you give it a stir then anyway.

Don’t forget to rub your hands together in anticipation, because it’s a-gonna be gooooood.

4. Stick in microwave for 2 minutes 1 1/2 minutes.

Watch it to make sure it doesn’t boil over. Boiling is bad. You don’t want to boil. I had it boil over. Bad Thérèse. Bad, bad. So is putting the spoon in. Do not put a metal spoon in the microwave. It’s a bad idea. Metal + microwave = sparks. Well, that’s when there are pointy edges. But still! Your spoon might be snagged, so just avoid it.

5. Add vanilla and creme.

I didn’t add the creme, but that was only because it was 11:00pm and I didn’t have any on hand. I totally would have though.

And voilà. Hot chocolate for one.

Note. I like my hot chocolate a little bit bitter. Add more sugar if you want it sweeter.