Mine does't look like that.

Photo from the Givers Log

Givers Log has an incredibly beautiful post about hot chocolate on a stick.  I love hot chocolate and on these cold dark winter days, a warm cup is a blessing.  Benjamin Franklin said: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."  I think he is wrong.  Chocolate is proof that God loves us.  Anyway, the Giver's Log's basic recipe has 4 ingredients.  I can make that.  At least I thought I could.

We had all the ingredients in the house and I had the bright idea to use candy canes for the sticks.  Except, when I unwrapped them, I found out that lots were broken.  I didn't want to go buy Popsicle sticks so I decided to use some leftover plastic spoons.  I thought putting marshmallows on the ends would be cool. When I pushed the marshmallow through it left white sticky stuff all over the spoon handle.  I ended up cutting them and squishing them around the handle that way.  I must have still had some cocoa powder on my hands because some of them look pretty grubby.

The Farmer and I melted the chocolate over a double boiler without difficulty.  I sifted in the powdered sugar and coco powder and the stuff stiffened up and got really dry.  We stirred and stirred; which was really hard because it was so thick.  Finally, we added more chocolate and a little oil to get it to the right consistency. 

On the Giver's Log she spent a lot of time talking about quality chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa butter.  Now I know why.  Wegman's semi sweet chips apparently are not up to snuff.

We put it into the bag and when I squeezed it to get it to pipe into the ice cube tray, the bag broke.  Getting it into the tray at all neatly was a challenge.  The bag broke two more times.  Eventually, we got it in there and shoved the spoons and canes in.  We made a terrific mess.

It looks a little better coming out of the ice cube tray, but not much.  The candy canes broke even more, so they were pretty much a total bust.

And yet, who care what it looks like? What really matters here is how it tastes.  After a long wait for the kettle whistle, we plunked them on out mugs.  They don't melt quickly or smoothly.  We let them sit for about 5 minutes and then stirred.  A lot.  I added some half and half to make it creamy.  It looked better with mini marshmallows on top.  The kid apparently got a hold of the bag while I was not looking and topped hers off.  It is good cocoa.  The best ever?  I don't think so.  But it is  better than the stuff that comes out of little white envelopes.