Hot Chocolate and S'mores

While waiting for my sister to come home, I was flipping through our Joy the Baker cookbook. After drooling, ooh-ing and aah-ing over all the photos, I decided I wanted to make hot chocolate from the Joy the Baker cookbook once she got back, while we watched our DVR'ed episodes of Gossip Girl. Well, Joy the Baker, thanks for making such a delish hot chocolate recipe, I can never go back to Swiss Miss!

Joy's recipe called for chocolate chips. We ran out of chocolate chips because I had made some molten lava chocolate cake earlier in the week, so sis and I went to the grocery store to pick up more. Naturally, I was distracted by the jet puffed marshmallows and felt that we also needed to make s'mores. Ten minutes later, we walked out of Safeway with 2 bags of semi sweet chocolate chips, one bar of semi sweet chocolate, a bag of marshmallows and a box of graham crackers. This is the reason I have been drinking kale smoothies all week.

Perfection. All of it.

Hot Chocolate, Recipe from Joy the Baker

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (plus extra for nibbling on)
• 2 heaping tablespoons white chocolate chips
• 2 cups milk 
• 1/4 tsp. instant coffee powder
• A dash of salt 

Prepare a saucepan with about 2 inches of water, and heat it to a simmer. In a heat-safe bowl, add both chocolate chips. Once the water reaches a simmer, place the bowl on top, stirring the chocolate occasionally. 

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, heat the milk to a boil. Add the melted chocolate, instant coffee powder, and salt and whisk until it is combined. 

Pour into two mugs and top with a marshmallow. Accompany with s'mores (recipe below) while watching Gossip Girl and admiring Serena's earrings. 

Indoor S'mores, a Hom Nom original! 

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 4 Graham Crackers (2 s'mores per person)
• 4 marshmallows
• 4 squares of semi sweet chocolate 
• 4 tsp. peanut butter 

Break the graham crackers into halves and top one side with peanut butter. Add one square of chocolate on top of the peanut butter. You could easily swap the peanut butter for dulce de leche...or even NUTELLA if you are in an extra chocolatey mood.

Get a skewer or two and turn your stove on (hopefully you have a gas stove), and hold the marshmallows over the flame. If you don't have a gas stove or a fire place, you can place the marshmallows on a plate and stick them into the microwave for 3-5 seconds. It isn't the same touch as having charred marshmallows, but it will hold you over. 

While your marshmallow is still on fire, place it on top of your chocolate in the graham cracker to "melt" the chocolate. I let my marshmallow char a bit on top of the chocolate before blowing the fire out. Top with the other half of the graham cracker. 

S'mores don't have to be just a dessert thing. I had some for breakfast too!