Restaurant Recipe: Café Angelina’s Hot Chocolate

via creative commons, flickr user laowai kevin

Our friend Ariana (the email Santa!) just emailed us with the most delicious gift.  A recipe.  Not just any recipe, but a recipe for Café Angelina’s famous hot chocolate.   Café Angelina (226 rue de Rivoli) in Paris is notorious for their velvety rich hot chocolate called Chocolat L’Africain (named so for it’s Ivory coast cacao beans).  The tea room, close to the Louvre art museum, is a favorite venue of both local Parisians and tourists alike.  Fashion designer Vera Wang listed it as one of her favorite destinations, and Grammy Award winning soprano opera Renée Fleming states Angelina’s “is a must for hot chocolate.” We love Ariana’s description the best:  “so sinfully thick, it’s almost difficult to pour”!

Café Angelina’s Chocolat L’Africain (deliciously decadent hot chocolate)
This recipe serves 2 small cups, or one large cup. 2 serious chocolate lovers should double it!

1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp of confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar)
4 oz of chopped 72% Omanhene brand bittersweet chocolate (you may use another brand here, but ensure that it is close to 70% cocoa. We chopped up half of a Lindt 70% bar, found in the baking section of our regular grocery store.)

Heat the milk, cream, and sugar over medium high heat until bubbles are created around the pot.
Remove the pot from heat.   Add the bittersweet chocolate.
Stir until melted adjusting heat as needed.  Serve topped with whipped cream.

{Tasting Notes: Our review after making this –  it’s similar to drinking a chocolate bar, and perfect for those evenings when you are craving sweets after dinner.  And put your guilt on the back burner, dark chocolate is antioxidant packed.}