Christmas Cooking 1 Day to Christmas (and some Knitted Ornaments too)

Every Holliday season
 
Vogue magazine has articles on all the luxury gifts you can get.  Most of them are things like custom Bentleys and couture gowns, but this year they had an article about the luxury of a perfect cup of hot chocolate.   Really good hot chocolate, not the Swiss Miss kind, really is the ultimate little luxury.  After lots of tinkering, here is how I make mine (note this is not a very sweet hot chocolate so you may want to increase the sugar to 2 tbsp).

Luxury Hot Chocolate for One

3 tbsp unsweetened Scharfen Berger cocoa powder or other high quality cocoa
3 tbsp Evian sparkling water or other sparkling water (the sparkles help make it fizzy)
1 to 2 tbsp sugar (I use the smaller amount)
8  ounces whole milk
1 ounce high quality bittersweet chocolate, like Scharfen Berger

Whisk the cocoa, water, and sugar together in a small sauce pan to make paste.  Whisk in the milk.  Heat over low heat, whisking constantly, do not allow to boil.  Just before turning off the heat add the bittersweet chocolate and whisk until it melts.

Serve with marshmallows if you like (I got some tasty peppermint ones from Whole Foods)

You can sip your Hot Chocolate while you knit.  I made these knitted ornaments
using a pattern from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts and they where pretty easy and quick. 

Merry Christmas Eve!