Thick Italian hot chocolate with orange

Is there anything more tempting and sexy than chocolate?

The truth is.. no there isn’t. From the moment you take your first bite you will be helpless.. craving for more and more.

This is particularly the case with dark chocolate as it has more cocoa content and less sugar. This means less itching in your throat, a deeper rich taste and certainly more satisfaction.

Today I am giving you my recipe for a good thick Italian hot chocolate, silky and luxurious flavoured with orange and gluten free too. Homemade hot chocolate is always best as you can use better quality chocolate as opposed to those ready-made industrial hot chocolate sachets you get in coffee bars which have lots of sugar, flavourings and little taste.

I have received some organic fairtrade chocolate to review: mint, single origin panama dark, and dark chocolate with nibs from “Chocolate and Love” along with some Fairtrade sugar from “Traidcraft”. This is excellent quality chocolate, very silky and creamy. I love the cocoa nibs as they add a crunchy taste to it. I have made the hot chocolate with the Panama dark which has 80% cocoa content (very good for cooking) and used the unrefined cane sugar which has a deeper and more interesting taste than ordinary refined sugar.

This recipe makes a hot chocolate for two.

• Prep Time : 10 minutes
• Cook Time : 5 minutes
• Yield : 2

Ingredients

• milk – 250 ml – 8 fluid oz
• dark chocolate – 80 g – 1/2 cup
• organic or unwaxed orange – 1
• rice flour – 1 tbsp
• unrefined cane sugar – 3 tbsp

Instructions

Put the rice flour and the sugar in a sauce pan then gradually add the milk and stir well to remove any lumps. Wash and dry the orange and with a knife cut the zest off. Make sure you don’t cut the soft, white pith that lies underneath which is bitter.

Add the zest to the pan with the milk and bring to the boil over a gentle heat.

Just before it comes to the boil add the chocolate cut into pieces; turn the heat down and continue cooking it so that the chocolate will melt and the mixture will have thickened.

Remove the orange zest and serve hot.