White Hot Chocolate: Mugg and Bean style

One of my longtime bucket list goals has been to learn how to make white hot chocolate well. It's a treat that I first ran across when I was studying abroad, and fell head over heels in love with. I spent 6 weeks in South Africa the summer after my sophomore year in college, and now, I still miss the food from my favorite restaurant there--the Mugg and Bean. It was a little chain of coffee shops that made the best pancakes and muffins, dessert (of which a serving was equivalent to 3 desserts in a US restaurant), and especially white hot chocolate. I blame the Mugg and Bean for a large portion of the 10 pounds I gained overseas, but ever since I've been hoping I could figure out how to duplicate some of the recipes that I've been missing. While I have yet to make the chocolate chip muffins the size of a softball or the amazing whole grain pancakes, this week I finally attempted a recipe for white hot chocolate that made me feel like I was back in Durban, skipping my morning homework in favor of breakfast at Musgrave Centre.

A fair warning--if you don't really like white chocolate or if you're completely dedicated to normal hot chocolate, this is not for you. If you like white chocolate, are willing to risk needing an extra hour or so at the gym and are ok with adventuring a little with your hot drinks, this is absolutely worth a try. It's decadent, warming enough to forget the snow for awhile and a pretty darn fun change from Swiss Miss.

White Hot Chocolate
Yum. I made this with 2% milk and heavy whipping cream, but I think I could have easily omitted most if not all of the whipping cream without being upset. There's just so much chocolate in this that it's still plenty decadent!

Ingredients

• 12 ounces good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped. (I learned that you can tell good white chocolate if the main ingredient has something to do with cocoa or cocoa butter.)
• 6 cups whole milk (I reduced this down to 2% and it was plenty rich and creamy for me).
• 2 cups heavy cream (I used this, but next time I'll try reducing or omitting it).
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. (I forgot this at first, but when I tasted it went back and added some. It's absolutely a necessary ingredient in my opinion.)
• Whipped cream, peppermint sticks or shaved chocolate for garnish (I skipped all these and was completely fine).

Directions

1. Place white chocolate in a medium miuxing bowl and set aside. This is what you'll be mixing the full batch of hot chocolate in, so make sure it's big enough.
2. Place milk and cream in a medium sauce pan and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent scalding, until warm and the sides are becoming bubbly. My recipe said this was about 4 minutes, but for me it took a little longer.
3. Immediately pour over chocolate in bowl. Stir until chocolate melts and combines with milk. Add the vanilla and stir until frothy. This takes a minute or two and is a good arm workout to make you feel a little better about the massive amount of really tasty chocolate and cream you're about to ingest!
4. Garnish as needed and stir immediately. This one is good to drink pretty quickly before it cools, as a bit of a skin develops after it sits for awhile. Some people may not mind that, but the boys declared it too weird to drink!

I was thrilled to learn how to make white hot chocolate well--that's half of a goal to cross of my bucket list. Now, if anyone has any advice on duplicating malva pudding or Mugg and Bean's kahlua freezers or chocolate chip muffins, I will be set (and about 50 pounds heavier)!