It's a hot chocolate Friday

Obsessed with finding a good hot chocolate recipe cuz I can't find my favorite one anymore.

I like hot chocolate made by melting good quality chocolate and then adding warm milk. However, in desperate moments, I've been caught using powdered hot chocolate mixes (dare I admit it's Swiss Miss?). In that case, I use hot whole milk, rather than hot water.

Here's the closest one:

Rich Hot Chocolate

Berkeley, Calif., chocolate doyenne Alice Medrich includes this recipe in her newest book, Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales From a Life in Chocolate (Artisan, $35). It yields a hot chocolate exceptionally rich and representative of the quality of the chocolate used. It won't be for everyone, just people who want a melted bittersweet chocolate bar for breakfast.

Ingredients:

6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1-1/2 cups boiling water
1-1/2 cups milk

Preparation:

Place the chocolate in a small saucepan. Pour about half of the boiling water over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the rest of the boiling water and the milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously, until hot but nowhere near boiling (the texture and flavor are both best if the hot chocolate never exceeds 180 degrees). Serve immediately, or set aside and reheat just before serving.

But the rest of the recipes on this page sound fantastic, if you're up to it. I just like simple and easy recipes.