Nothing warms my heart and soul in the dead of winter quite like a steaming cup of hot coco. And since the nights and mornings have been exceptionally cold, for California standards of course, I decided to make this recipe for hot chocolate—surprisingly, it’s less labor intensive than I thought it would be and ten times better than those packaged mixes from the store. Since whip cream was not in house I added a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream, which gave a creamy top while flavoring with mint, and, extra chocolate… yes please.

[ The richer, the better. Next time I’m going with 2% ]

[ The chocolate mixture simmering, and making the kitchen smell amazing at the same time ]

[ Fresh mint and mint chocolate chip ice cream to garnish ]

[ The melted ice cream leaves a perfectly creamy top ]