This is a recipe for the best hot chocolate, made with high quality dark chocolate (70%) and whole milk. The milk is infused with Earl Grey tea, but you can skip that if you prefer. This makes a rich, luxurious hot chocolate.
Place the pan of milk on the heat. If infusing with tea, add the tea bags to the milk. Heat over medium–high heat until it's almost boiling. Remove from the heat and, if using tea, let steep 5 minutes. Squeeze the bags and remove them.
Add the dark chocolate to the hot milk. Let stand for 1 minute then stir to melt. Use an immersion blender to emulsify the mixture to yield smooth hot chocolate. This will also a lovely froth to the hot chocolate.
Divide the hot chocolate between two mugs. Serve immediately as is, or with a dollop of sweet whipped cream or a marshmallow.
Notes
For the dark chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Ocoa 70 % dark chocolate.Here are a few examples of how you can get creative and flavour hot chocolate. Remember that in all cases, you will have to experiment to get the flavour you want. Make sure to add less flavouring first and add more as needed. If you add too much, you can't go back!
Tea-infused hot chocolate: steep the milk with a few tea bags (or a tea strainer with loose leaf tea) to add tons of flavour before adding the chocolate
Spiced hot chocolate: add cinnamon, cardamom, or even some dried chilli for a kick
Nutty hot chocolate: stir in a little nut butter, like tahini or peanut butter. Start with ¼ cup (60 mL) and add more to taste.
Peppermint hot chocolate: stir in a little peppermint extract. Start with around ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract and add more as needed.