Peppermint Hot Chocolate

You really can't get more in the season than Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I'm already a sucker for a product in a tin, so you know it was going to jump into my basket -- okay, maybe I had to kindly plead to my husband -- after all, I had just bought two other types of hot chocolate in the previous trip to Trader Joe's.

Anyway, back to the hot chocolate. Its tin is really a winner -- it has a nice thick top on it, so the moment you open the package it feels like quality. Then, the better surprise -- there are little chocolate shavings inside the powder! I know, I should have let you discover that for yourself, but I really was thrilled with this. I'm not sure if I can drink another hot chocolate again without little chocolate shavings inside it.

In fact, I was so smitten by this hot chocolate that I've already purchased a second tin of it -- and I can't blame my husband for drinking it, because he said it reminds him of visiting the dentist's office. Well, geez...at least there's more for me!

Adventures in Chantilly Cream

Chantilly cream! One step above whipped cream. Good thing, too, because I've been lusting over those whipped cream cans where you make your own whipped cream. But this was way easier and made an awesome cup of hot chocolate.

Since this was my first time attempting to make Chantilly cream, I just went with a basic recipe:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour it all in a bowl (it will grow about 3 times its size) and beat it with a whisk attachment on your electric mixer. Or you can do it with a whisk and burn off some of the calories you're about to consume.  It took about 2 minutes beating -- and my bowl was too shallow, so my husband was getting splattered with sweetened heavy whipping cream as he kindly tried to photograph me mixing it.  Good thing none of it splattered the camera!

For the record, this probably made enough cream for 4 generous servings of Chantilly cream to top cups of hot chocolate. It will store in the refrigerator, but may need to be lightly whipped again the next time you use it, in case some of the liquid separates out.

I had a lot of fun watching the cream grow thicker and thicker, and I'm already looking forward to next time -- I think chocolate Chantilly cream is in my future. I will say that a full teaspoon of vanilla extract is actually quite a lot for this recipe. I figured that one can never have too much vanilla, but...I was wrong. It was very powerful. I guess I'll just have to experiment more...

(By the way, that awesome cookie I'm dunking is a Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe from Trader Joe's! Soooo amazing.)