This Italian Hot Chocolate or Cioccolata Calda is a thick and creamy chocolate drink that has minimal ingredients, is comforting and easy and quick to make.
Hot Chocolate is kind of my jam. We are pretty much obsessed with it in this house. With 4 kids, when the snow flies it is one of the most requested drink recipes around our house.
Luckily they don’t have to be stuck with one version, if you are a hot chocolate fan then you might like my Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, Gingerbread Hot Chocolate or my Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- Minimal ingredients make this recipe super easy and quick.
- You can make it as thick or thin as you like by adjusting the liquids and the cornstarch.
- You can make it with any type of chocolate that you choose depending on your sweetness preference.
If you are a lover of decadent thick, creamy drinks, this Cioccolata Calda – Italian Hot Chocolate is exactly what your heart has been looking for, thick and creamy pretty much should be squeezed in it’s name.
HOW TO MAKE ITALIAN HOT CHOCOLATE, STEP BY STEP:
- In medium sauce pan add 3/4 cup milk, heavy cream and sugar and heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble around the edges (about 7-8 minutes).
- In a small container whisk together your remaining 1/4 cup milk and cornstarch together.
- Once your milk, cream and sugar mixture has started bubbling whisk in your cornstarch mixture and heat again for about 1 minute.
- Add in your chopped chocolate and whisk over medium heat until chocolate melts and it thickens (about 5 minutes).
- Remove from heat and whisk in your vanilla extract (this is optional) until combined.
- Pour into mugs and serve with whipped topping and chocolate shavings if desired.
This Cioccolata Calda – Italian Hot Chocolate is super simple, just look at it above, and seriously, if you don’t love how creamy this is then you are truly missing out.
I know it’s not everyones cup of tea, but there is just something about a thicker more rich hot chocolate recipe that really get’s me and screams comfort.
WHAT CHOCOLATE DO I USE?
For this Italian Hot Chocolate recipe you can use any type of chocolate that you would like. I do however recommend using a chocolate bar like Bakers brand.
We used semi-sweet for this recipe, but a lot of people like to use dark or bittersweet chocolate. You can also use white chocolate to mix it up a little bit, but the higher quality the chocolate the better, it will melt and blend easier.
When you think of Italian Hot Chocolate just picture chocolate soup, chocolate gravy or maybe a thinner ganache. This is what this texture will be like.
It is not overpoweringly thick, or sweet, like I stated before, you can switch up the sweetness level by the different chocolate that you do choose for this recipe.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MAKIG ITALIAN HOT CHOCOLATE:
- For a stronger dark chocolate flavor use chocolate that has at least 60% cocoa, for a sweeter less dark chocolate flavor use anything less than that.
- You can change up chocolate using dark, semi-sweet, milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and even white.
- I recommend using baking bars for this that are chopped up, they are higher quality and melt better, stay away from chocolate chips.
- Do not heat your milk too fast, this will scald and burn your milk, do not go over medium heat on this recipe at any given time.
- If you want a thicker Cioccolata Calda then add a little bit more cornstarch to the mixture, 1 tsp at a time, if you want a thinner consistency just add a little bit more milk or cream.
If you like this recipe you might also like:
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Italian Hot Chocolate (Cioccolata Calda)
Ingredients
- 4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate chopped
- 1 cup whole milk divided
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 Tbs sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- In medium sauce pan add 3/4 cup milk, heavy cream and sugar and heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble around the edges (about 7-8 minutes).
- In a small container whisk together your remaining 1/4 cup milk and cornstarch together.
- Once your milk, cream and sugar mixture has started bubbling whisk in your cornstarch mixture and heat again for about 1 minute.
- Add in your chopped chocolate and whisk over medium heat until chocolate melts and it thickens (about 5 minutes).
- Remove from heat and whisk in your vanilla extract (this is optional) until combined.
- Pour into mugs and serve with whipped topping and chocolate shavings if desired.
Notes
- For a stronger dark chocolate flavor use chocolate that has at least 60% cocoa, for a sweeter less dark chocolate flavor use anything less than that.
- You can change up chocolate using dark, semi-sweet, milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and even white.
- I recommend using baking bars for this that are chopped up, they are higher quality and melt better, stay away from chocolate chips.
- Do not heat your milk too fast, this will scald and burn your milk, do not go over medium heat on this recipe at any given time.
- If you want a thicker Cioccolata Calda then add a little bit more cornstarch to the mixture, 1 tsp at a time, if you want a thinner consistency just add a little bit more milk or cream.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
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