My daughter and I are always on the lookout for a good cup of hot chocolate. The other night, after a long day, I decided to have some for dinner. I had a bar of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate that was sent to me at work. As I was out of milk, I resorted to heavy cream, which was the only dairy product in the fridge. I combined it with about a cup of water, the 3 ounce bar of Scharffen Berger, a smidge of sugar, and a dash of malted milk powder. I put it in a heavy pan over low heat, and left it to heat as I folded a load of laundry. I returned to the creamiest, best hot chocolate I've ever made. I've never paid that much attention to chocolate, as it's not my love. But in the past I've tried to make it like this with whatever inexpensive chocolate I've on hand. It's always been grainy and not very good. But this was an epiphany. I don't know if the 70% cacao (on the label) was the key, or the Scharffen Berger brand, but you can bet, when it comes to hot chocolate, or melting chocolate in general, I'll choose Scharffen Berger.
Best Hot Chocolate
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup water
3 ounces Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Chocolate
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon malted milk powder (optional)
Dash of salt
1. Combine all in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Fold the laundry or make a phone call. Return to barely simmering creamy hot chocolate. Stir well and serve in a mug all for yourself....... Actually will serve 2.
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I know it isn't customary to cook for your own birthday party, but I had all this roasted pumpkin left over from the healthy snack program at my son’s school and wanted to use it. So I decided to make some pumpkin ice cream to go with the maple cake my girlfriend was baking. I searched fruitlessly for a recipe that didn’t use a custard that must be cooked then cooled (didn’t have time for that, of course), so I decided to make some frozen yogurt. It was much simpler, and I liked the idea of the tangy yogurt with the rich pumpkin.
All mixed up and ready for the ice cream freezer.
I used the base of my favorite lemon frozen yogurt, then added the pureed pumpkin, spices, a dose of cream cheese for richness and a dash of heavy cream to finish it off. It was fabulous with the rich maple cake. However if you don’t have any of that on hand, a drizzle of warmed caramel sauce would be lovely.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt
3 cups Greek low fat yogurt (such as Fage)
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
2 cups pureed roasted pumpkin
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup cream cheese, softened in microwave until creamy
1/3 cup heavy cream
Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until combined. Place in container of ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturers instructions.
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