No matter how hard I try or how sleep deprived I am, I just cannot get myself to drink coffee. My husband is an addict and makes his fancy espressos every morning and I wish that I could make myself like the taste, but I really don’t. So in the cold winter months, I am a hot chocolate fiend! There is something so comforting about holding a big ol’ cup of steaming chocolate in your hands to warm you. Maybe it brings back happy childhood memories, I don’t know…I just know that I love it and it makes me happy to find new ways to make it.
Which was why I was basically jumping up and down, racing around my kitchen to try out some hot chocolate on a stick. I wanted to kick it up an extra notch, and sea salt and caramel seemed an obvious choice to me!
It was kismet since I still had some caramels laying around from my caramel apples, so I got right to work whipping these up. They were so easy that my five year old did most of the work. Even better!
- 10 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
- 8 Tbs confectioner's sugar
- 3 Tbs baking cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 10 caramels (I used the individually wrapped kind)
- sea salt
- Melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until fully melted. Mix in confectioner's sugar, baking cocoa and vanilla.
- Spoon into ice cube tray.
- Melt caramels in microwave, again stirring every 30 seconds. Pour small amount on top of each chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Allow to harden completely.
Add one stick to a mug of steaming milk or water and stir to melt. It makes such a rich, creamy hot chocolate that tastes so much better than those packets you can buy at the store!
I will make a small suggestion here…use wooden popsicle sticks for this. I had some cake pop sticks lying around, so I chose to use those instead of running to the store, but they tend to disintegrate in the drink itself. Bummer!
These are great for holiday gift giving, or just as a special treat for yourself. I know I won’t be sharing anytime soon!
I make lattes thank you very much. But yes, I am an addict…step one is admission.