Ever since I saw the movie,’Chocolat’, I have been intrigued with the concept of thick dark drinking chocolate. In the movie, the main character travels from town to town making and selling delectable chocolates and sinfully rich drinking chocolate flavored with mysterious chili peppers from exotic foreign lands. The chocolates also seem to have the power to influence behavior, but that’s another story all together…

The part of the story that is not just movie magic is the dark rich drinking chocolates of Europe. These chocolates are strong, bold, less sweet and have a completely different taste than typical American chocolate. Even though the weather is turning, we thought we’d try our hand at dark drinking chocolate that can be served as a rich dessert.

Last month our Dessert category included a version of this concept, Meringue Topped Hot Chocolate with Carmelized Bananas, which was the springboard for our drinking chocolate experiments.

Our first step was to start with a fine dark chocolate. We used our favorite hand crafted chocolate, Scharffen Bergers, which is also gloriously gluten-free. We started with 4 ounces of chopped chocolate and melted it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. In a separate small saucepan, we added 1 cup of whole milk and heated it over low heat just to the simmering point and then removed it from the heat. For a richer and creamier hot chocolate, you could use half & half or cream instead of milk but we felt the milk was adequate with less fat.

Decadent Hot Chocolate

We then slowly poured the hot milk into the melted chocolate, stirring to blend thoroughly. A little goes a long way with this decadent drink, so we prefer to serve it in demi-tasse cups. Carefully pour the chocolate into cups and serve. These delicious little cups of chocolate are like drinking truffles!

And, just like truffles, you can add flavorings to the chocolate/milk mixture once they have been blended.

Try a shake or two of cayenne pepper or a couple of shakes of cinnamon, or a drop of orange oil, or any liqueur.

Try a fun dessert treat for dinner guests, by making the hot chocolate and pouring equal amounts into 4 small bowls. Flavor each bowl separately, then pour into cups. Your guests can then choose between several different dark chocolate tastes! Served with a little gluten-free cookie, this is the perfect ending to a chocolate lover’s meal!