January 11, 2018

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

Name: Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 cup whole milk; 2 tablespoons heavy cream; 1/3 cup milk chocolate; 1/3 cup dark chocolate; 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

As promised, throughout January aka Hot Cocoa Month I’ll be sharing bonus recipes as a thank you for helping me reach my 2017 goal. That means instead of one recipe a week I’ll be sharing with you TWO recipes a week! Check back every Sunday and Thursday for plenty of easy and delicious, made-from-scratch, hot cocoa recipes!

We survived a bomb cyclone, and now here we are in the middle of January and we’re going to come close to hitting 60* in New England! WHAT IS HAPPENING?! But guys, it’s never too warm for hot chocolate. (Just like it’s never too cold for ice cream. NEVER.) Even in warm weather, there is something so comforting about curling up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate.

Also, this recipe was inspired by an ice cream date with a dear friend on a bitterly cold winter day (like I said…never too cold). I told her about Hot Cocoa Month and she gave me the brilliant suggestion of a peanut butter hot chocolate. Peanut butter and chocolate together is absolutely divine. It’s one of the best combos out there. I don’t know if it’s true that Reese’s was the start of mainstreaming the pairing, but if so, I mourn for all those years people missed out on this heavenly combo.

I thought this recipe would be super straightforward, but it took quite a few test runs. And I didn’t hate having to taste them all. I originally thought about using peanut butter chips, and I think that would work well too if that’s what you have on hand, but you can’t beat real peanut butter. This hot chocolate is rich and thick and chocolatey and peanut buttery. It has layers of flavor (see last post) and is exactly what you need on a cold (or warm) winter day!

Print Recipe

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

Prep Time5 mins

Total Time5 mins

Servings: 1 mug

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/3 cup milk chocolate
1/3 cup dark chocolate
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Instructions

Combine both chips and peanut butter in a heatproof bowl (preferably with a spout), and set aside.
Combine milk and cream in a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking frequently. (The faster you whisk, the foamier the milk will be.)
When the milk looks like it's about to boil, remove from heat and pour into bowl over the chips and peanut butter.
Let sit about 1 minute, then whisk until completely smooth.
Pour into a mug and enjoy!

Notes

As with the last recipe, high quality chocolate will improve the taste of this recipe, but I'm always a proponent of using what you have on hand. I used Ghirardelli chips (60% Dark, and Milk), but you can also chop chocolate if you don't have chips. The chips just save a step!

I used whole milk for my test recipes, but I think whatever type of milk you have on hand should also work fine. You can use a little bit more cream and less milk to thicken a lighter milk.