I struggled a bit with this one. Not about making it - I was very excited to make it after seeing it on Giada De Laurentiis' daytime
Food Network show
Giada at Home. I took notes while watching the show, gathered the ingredients, took pictures as I went along, and finally took a sip of the completed hot chocolate.
Hmm... It wasn't that great. It was barely good.
So now what? I made this drink, my fiance had taken the time to help setup the beautiful pictures, and now this. I wanted my blog to only deliver top quality hot chocolates, the best I could find or think of, and this certainly wasn't that. I was going to scrap it.
My fiance convinced me that I should post about it anyway. So please keep reading if you saw that episode of Giada's show and thought "Wow, that sounds yummy!"
This sounded amazing when
Giada made it on her show, and very healthy, as well. I think maybe that's more of what she was going for. Something healthy for the kids, something not filled with sugar and sweeteners.
Here's the ingredient list:
12 strawberries
3 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp agave
1 tbsp chopped dark chocolate
Some of these ingredients are new to the blog, so let's take a look at them.
The base in this one, rather than milk or water, is
almond milk.
Almond milk typically comes in a few varieties: sweetened, unsweetened, vanilla, original, and combinations of those. Regular almond milk is made from almonds and water, with a few other minor ingredients, and it really does taste like almonds. It's pretty good. For plain drinking, I much prefer the sweetened vanilla flavor. I plan on using almond milk in the future for dairy-free hot chocolate recipes.
As a sweetener, Giada uses
agave nectar. It tastes very much like honey, and has the consistency of maple syrup. Pretty good stuff, but a little research online shows that while agave is being pushed as a natural, healthy sweetener, it is anything but.
Many articles out there talk about how it is most definitely
not a natural sweetener, and that the body
processes it in the same way it does high fructose corn syrup. If this bothers you, definitely do some more research on it. There's tons out there.
I'm using organic strawberries from a local farmer's market. Make sure you wash them good. Rather than rinsing berries under the faucet, a better way to wash them is to put them into a large bowl and fill it with water. Swish them around in it for a minute or so, then drain. That's a much more thorough washing!
The
cocoa powder I'm using is from
Askinosie Chocolate. It's from beans grown in
Davao in the Philippines. Askinosie makes amazing chocolate and chocolate products, and
I reviewed their sipping chocolate a while back.
The dark chocolate I'm using is some
70% from Scharffen Berger Chocolate. Great stuff!
Cut all the green tops off the strawberries (discard those) and put all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until it's all liquid.
This recipe makes a lot, so if you make it, be sure and have a small pitcher or some Tupperware handy to keep the rest in. And of course, keep it refrigerated.
Pour it into a pan to heat it up. I'm only heating one serving. Don't let it boil, just get it close, and keep stirring while you heat it.
And there we go, Giada's strawberry hot chocolate. Topped with some fresh whipped cream, slices of strawberry, and chocolate shavings. What do you think? Do you agree with me, it's not that great?
With all that being said, I think this is my opportunity to begin working on a strawberry hot chocolate of my own. One that packs all the amazing chocolaty flavor it should, with tangy, sweet strawberry flavor not hiding in there, but sharing the spotlight.
Some of these recipes I've worked here on the blog, others I dialed in specifically for the festival, and others Ann and her team came up with. It's so exciting to know that people are going to be able to walk in and order some of these amazing hot chocolates! Here's a list of the flavors that will be available:
Most will be paired with a select flavor Plush Puff's amazing marshmallows, which, if you have never tried, you are in for a treat! In fact, I've featured their marshmallows here on the blog before.
