Add some flair to your usual hot chocolate recipe, Turtle Hot Chocolate includes rich and thick dark chocolate, pecan “butter” and a healthy drizzle of caramel sauce. Perfect on a cold day!
Welcome to Day Two of Christmas Week. This event is hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. We hope to inspire you to break out those holiday sprinkles and get your bake on!
Thanks to our sponsors for Christmas Week. Anolon is donating a 5-piece Bakeware Set. Swing by their Facebook Page to show them some love. We also have Ball supplying us with 4 sets of Jars in their gorgeous Green Heritage Color. Swing by their Ball Canning and Recipes Facebook Page to say hello.
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Ahhh, hot chocolate, nothing says winter more than walking outside on a snowy day with a big pipping cup of fresh hot chocolate from your favorite shop.
Hot Chocolate is my jam, I’ll happily drink it year round but come winter time the consumption goes up significantly.
Seriously though, it’s melted chocolate in a mug. You have been given permission to drink melted chocolate. Can it get any better than that?
Now this is hot chocolate, not hot cocoa. There is a significant difference here too. Hot cocoa is made with only cocoa powder and is thin and weak and comes from a package or a can. Hot chocolate on the other hand is either only chocolate or a combination of cocoa powder and chocolate and rich, velvety smooth, thick, delicious and the only kind you should drink.
On our last visit to Seattle, Braden and I stopped by our favorite chocolate shop to pop in for my annual Seattle cup of hot chocolate when we visit. This place is awesome, besides having some of the best locally made chocolate, they have a hot chocolate bar.
What? Yes, they do. After perusing the menu, I stumbled upon their version of turtle hot chocolate and just had to give it a go. Folks, I expected no less from this shop but it was amazing. They had some sort of pecan butter concoction that was spread all over the inside of my mug, plus the caramel and of course whipped cream on top.
I knew it had to be recreated at home. Now without knowing exactly what or how they did the pecan part I made it up on my own. I figured on their end it was a pecan butter/syrup mix. Let’s make our life easier and just pull out your old spice grinder and make a pecan “butter” of sorts. The pecans don’t get ground enough to let the oils out into full fledged pecan butter (also by all means if you know of such a thing do share) but they are fine enough to add to your mug and sprinkle on top for a taste.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk (organic is best)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons high quality cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 4 ounces good quality dark chocolate, chopped
- 2 tablespoons toasted pecans
- caramel sauce
- whipped cream
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat whisk together the milk, salt, cocoa powder and cornstarch and bring to a boil for 1 minute.
- Stir in the dark chocolate until melted and let boil for another minute.
- Remove from the heat.
- Using a spice or nut grinder, grind up your pecans until they are very fine and some oils start to release to form a pecan butter.
- Scoop the pecans out of the grinder and divide it between 4 small mugs, placing about 1 teaspoon on the bottom of the mug.
- Pour the hot chocolate between the 4 mugs and top with whipped cream, a healthy drizzle of caramel sauce and remaining ground up pecans.
- Serve immediately.
Don’t forget about our Christmas Week giveaway! We have some great prizes and it’s open to enter until December 26th. Just follow the rafflecopter instructions below to enter. U.S. Residents only, age 18+.
Take a look at what you can win!
Giveaway Prizes include:
- One 5 piece set of Anolon Bakeware Set
- Two Sets of Ball Heritage Collection Quart Jars (each set includes 6 jars)
- Two Sets of Ball Heritage Collection Pint Jars (each set includes 6 jars)
- One Set of 1 Dozen Assorted Cookie Sampler Box from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop
- Two Sets of Brownie Brittle Snack Sampler (each set includes One 5-ounce bag of each flavour)
Plus 1 Copy of each of these cookbooks:
- One Autographed Copy of Make Ahead Bread by Donna Currie
- One Copy of The Mixer Bible by Meredith Deeds
- One Copy of 175 Best Babycakes Cake Pop Recipes by Kathy Moore and Roxanne Wyss
- One Copy of 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes by Julie-Anne Hession
- One Copy of The 250 Best Brownies, Bars & Squares by Ester Brody
- One Copy of Oatrageous Oatmeals by Kathy Hester
- One Copy of Adventures in Comfort Food by Kerry Alteiro
- One Copy of Food Truck Road Trip by Kim Pham
- One Copy of Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking by Cara Reed
- One Copy of 100 Juices, Smoothies and Healthy Snacks by Emily von Euw
- One Copy of CopyKat coms Dining Out at Home Cookbook Recipes by Stephanie Manley
- One Copy of Copykat.com’s Dining Out At Home Cookbook 2 by Stephanie Manley
Swing by all the participants to see what they’ve been whipping up for the holidays:
- Chocolate Shortbread Wedges with Pistachios by Cravings of a Lunatic
- Turtle Hot Chocolate by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
- Raspberry Rum Tart by Cookistry
- Chocolate Saltine Toffee (aka Christmas Crack) by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
- Pecan Brownie Bites by Farm Fresh Feasts
- Peppermint Brownie Cookies by Mind Over Batter
- Bourbon Brownies by Cooking In Stilettos
- Bananas Foster Baked French Toast by From Gate to Plate
Yes, please! Pass that piping hot cup of chocolatey deliciousness. This is one creative hot beverage recipe. Pinned.
I love trying new recipes out on the family each year. One tradition is that I make a french toast bake every Christmas Eve. Last year it was eggnog french toast bake.
I love to bake Shoo Fly Pie, but of course Christmas cookies, too!
Funny you should ask! I love to bake cookies (who doesn’t?) but just last night I made cut-out sugar cookies (new recipe, go figure) and they were an epic FAIL! I actually threw the entire batch out. I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like, so this was a major fail! I must have done something very, very wrong! The dough was so sticky that I had to keep adding flour to the board – which of course, made things worse. Long post — sorry!! Happy holidays! Love the giveaway! (and your cookies!)
Gingerbread cookies. I will wait until my daughter is home from college and bake together. We have been doing this since she was 3.
I love to bake sugar cookies and watch my kids decorate them. Thank you for the wonderful giveaway.
Erin
waldorf slice
Gingerbread cookies!
My sister & I just made truffles last night! Wonderful 🙂
My favorite thing is Pecan Shortbread cookies.
My favorite thing to bake during the holidays is gingerbread cookies.
Pingback: Day 2 of #ChristmasWeek Calls For Bourbon Brownies
I always love to make peppermint bark and my new favorite thing is mandelbrot!
Pingback: Chocolate Shortbread Wedges with Pistachios | Cravings of a Lunatic
Pingback: Chocolate Saltine Toffee (aka Christmas Crack) | Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
Pingback: Mind Over Batter - Peppermint Brownie Cookies #ChristmasWeek
Ok, I NEED to visit that chocolate shop next time I’m in Seattle. Turtle hot chocolate sounds amazing and your version, I’m sure, is just as good as theirs was. I drink hot chocolate throughout the year too but you’re right, I’ve been indulging a bit more than usual lately 🙂 T’is the season, right?
You are just going to have to time your next Seattle visit with mine, so we can go together. 🙂
I love to bake any thing gingerbread and sugar cookies that me and my daughter decorate.
I like to bake shortbread each year 🙂
I love to bake cookies!
I adore baking pies for both Thanksgiving and Christmas
I love baking pies during the holidays, pumpkin, chocolate, pie and more pie.
well this is going to get made!! I LOVE it, so smart! Pinning!
I love making strudels.
Siobhan, what a fun giveaway!! Would force me to use my rusty baking skills!
I love to make sweet potato casserole.
Sweet potato muffins
I enjoy making my mom’s recipe for sugar cookies, we use one pound of butter and 5 cups of flour, drop by tablespoons full into mounds and they puff up really nice-we frost and decorate for the holiday. These are amazing soft cookies
I love making saltine toffee bars. They’re quick, easy, and taste yummy.
i love trying out new recipes on my family!
I like to bake grasshopper bars for the holidays!
I love to bake cookies!
Brownies!