Temperatures reaching into the negatives. Schools closed for days on end. People freezing (?) their pants (?!) “for fun” (?!?!!).
Friends, this can only mean one thing. IT’S HOT CHOCOLATE SEASON!
(But also maybe the apocalypse.)
I prefer to believe the former. I am, after all, a bona fide hot chocolate (or “hot choc,” as I call it) connoisseur, and any excuse to dip into my pantry and emerge with hot choc mix is a good one. If you follow me on Insta, you’ve witnessed firsthand the alarming frequency with which I perform said emerging.
Now, with all this talk of polar vortex and hot choc, I know what you must be thinking. “Rebekah, don’t you live…in San Francisco?” Good question, reader. Good question. The thing is, yes, I absolutely do. But I’m also a New Englander at heart. Which must qualify me to reap the chocolate-laden benefits of East Coast winter living. Right? Right.
But enough about me, and more about hot choc.
I’m particularly proud of this recipe. If you can call it that. In reality, it’s more of a “brief downward pressing motion” than a full-on “recipe.” I first had the idea when I saw this go by on Pinterest for the umpteenth time. I actually set out to make exactly that—a hot chocolate with a heart-shaped marshmallow topper—but after rummaging through my kitchen drawers, I realized I must have either misplaced or discarded my heart cookie cutters. What I did come across were my miniature letter cutters. And the rest is history.
There’s really no exact science to it, but I did discover a few tricks for keeping the marshmallows looking pretty (not to mention some creative ideas for keeping them afloat), which I’ve outlined below. I can’t imagine a more perfect accompaniment to any Valentine’s day breakfast-in-bed (assuming your breakfast recipient doesn’t mind a mug of piping-hot milk in their bed) (on second thought, do not do this).
Anyway, it’s adorable, and I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought me.
Hot Chocolate Love Letters
What You’ll Need:
- Flat marshmallows (you can find these at almost any chain supermarket, online, or make your own if you’re feeling particularly ambitious; i recommend the JetPuffed StackerMallows…but these Hot Cocoa Toppers from Sur La Table are also thin enough to do the trick — they’re what i used the first time i made these (and you can see them in the video at the top of the post!)
- Your favorite hot chocolate recipe, prepared in your favorite mug!
- A set of mini letter cookie cutters!
What You’ll Do:
- Lay one marshmallow at a time on a flat surface, and use the letter cutters to cut out the shapes you want! (Pro tip: if you’re using non-flat marshmallows—which I really don’t recommend, because they won’t float properly in the hot chocolate and will make a mess and are generally just not suited for this purpose—you’ll want to at least cut the marshmallow in half, height-wise, just before this step. You might also consider coating the sticky inner part of the marshmallow in confectioner’s sugar so that it doesn’t make a mess when you go to cut it.)
- Float the marshmallows in the hot chocolate in order to write out “xoxo,” or whatever your heart desires. Just remember that the letters are going to float around in the mug, which means you’ll want to form a word for which the order of the letters don’t matter.
- Serve immediately and enjoy! The marshmallows will soon begin dissolving and/or absorbing chocolate within a few minutes, so this isn’t a make-ahead situation.