raspberry white hot chocolate

So here's a spin on homemade hot chocolate for those hibernal days when you don't want to leave the house and you just want to curl up next to the fire with a soporific mug of cocoa. I'm more of a dark chocolate person most of the time, but this white chocolate concoction was so comforting tasting that I think I may have been converted. The raspberries fill you with a nostalgia for summer while the white chocolate undertones carry you away into a dreamy winter wonderland.

Ingredients

1 cup white chocolate, chopped

4 cups whole milk

1 Tbsp vanilla

4 Tbsp raspberry syrup (recipe below)

Directions

Over medium heat, warm the milk and the chocolate, stirring so as not to burn the chocolate.

When the milk is on the verge of simmering, remove from heat and add the vanilla.

Pour the hot chocolate evenly into 4 mugs and drizzle each with a tablespoon of raspberry syrup.

(makes 4 cups)

raspberry syrup

Ingredients

1/2 cup raspberries (frozen or fresh)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

Directions

Simmer ingredients over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring and pressing the berries against the pan. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth into a glass, pressing the liquid through the cheesecloth with the back side of a spoon. The thick raspberry mixture that will be leftover from this process can be served the next morning as fresh jam.

coconut-almond treasures

I've always been crazy about the combination of coconut and almonds. Almond Joy candy bars and marzipan dipped in chocolate were the inspirations for this homemade candy.

Ingredients

1 cup almonds

2 tbl agave

1/4 cup coconut, shredded

2 cups chocolate chips (I used 60% dark, but feel free to use whatever you prefer)

You will also need:

12 cupcake liners

cupcake pan

double boiler

blender

Directions

Place 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. Heat 1 cup of chocolate in a double boiler until melted. Spoon a layer of chocolate into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Refrigerate the cupcake tray until chocolate hardens, about 45 minutes.

In the meantime, blend the almonds until they have the consistency of almond meal (about five seconds). Pour into a mixing bowl. Add the agave and mix to form a paste. If the consistency is too dry, add a tablespoon or so of water. Finally, add the shredded coconuts and mix.

When the chocolate is hard, remove the cupcake tray from the refrigerator and top each piece of chocolate with the almond-coconut mixture, as shown below. Spread the mixture evenly across the chocolate using a spoon.

Heat the remaining chocolate in a double boiler. Once the chocolate has melted, spread it in a thin layer over the almond paste.

Return the cupcake tray to the refrigerator until the chocolate hardens. When the candies are ready, carefully remove the cupcake liners and store the chocolates in the fridge.