Gingerbread Hot Cocoa with Friends

It all started when Casey, Stephanie, Garrett and I stopped in for a pre-dinner drink at Bittersweet in Oakland a couple months ago. This drink was not what you might imagine though, it wasn't a champagne or a martini, it was a Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa. Rich, buttery caramel married with melted chocolate and a zing of salt at the end to keep you on your toes. It was unlike any other salted caramel edible I've had. This was one of those rare combinations of flavor that makes your eyes open wide after you've had a moment to let the flavors wash over your taste buds. At that moment I became one of the salted caramel converted.

Not being much of a confectioner, I asked them all how one could possibly endeavor to recreate this magical concoction at home; I wanted to have it every day of my life. As we passed the drink around, they explained various ways to make the caramel, hot cocoa, and how to get the spark of salt at the end.

Over the next couple weeks, this whole conversation morphed into a hot cocoa challenge for the four of us. We would all come up with unusual ideas for hot cocoa and one of us was charged with recreating the hallowed Salted Butter Caramel Hot Cocoa. After weeks of recipe testing, photographing, and drinking more hot chocolate than I normally do in a full year we are here to show you our hard work.

My co-conspirators are Casey Barber from Good.Food.Stories, Stephanie Stiavetti from Wasabimon and Garrett McCord from Vanilla Garlic. I know what they've cooked up, but I'm not telling.  Don't be lazy and just go visit their blogs to find out. :)

As for me, you might know by reading my recent post, I've had molasses on the brain, so Gingerbread Hot Cocoa was a natural for me. I think you'll have all these ingredients on hand if you do any kind of baking during the holidays. I hope you like it, but if you don't you've got three more really great recipes to choose from.

Gingerbread Hot Cocoa
4 cups whole milk (you can use 2% as well)
1 inch of ginger root, cut into coins
6 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole allspice berries
Dash white pepper
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chunks, whatever kind you prefer

Pour milk into heavy bottomed sauce pan and add ginger root, cloves, cinnamon stick and allspice. Heat slowly over low heat until it comes to a gentle simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove aromatics from milk.

Heat milk again to a simmer over low heat and add chocolate chunks, molasses and white pepper, stirring until melted and thoroughly incorporated.  Amount of chocolate can vary based on your taste.

Remove from heat and serve with cookies, marshmallows or that oversized tin of popcorn you got at the office gift exchange.