Sweetheart Cocoa

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, do you need a quick, sweet treat for your valentine?  I have just the recipe for you, Sweetheart Cocoa!  (original recipe can be found here)

Trust me, this is an easy recipe and it only took me about 10-15 minutes.  You only need a few ingredients and most of them can probably be found in your pantry right now.  

Dump 1/2 cup of sugar and 4 tablespoons of butter in a medium size pan.  Turn the stove on medium high heat.  Add 1 pint (2 cups) of strawberry ice cream in with the butter and sugar.  (I also added a handful of milk chocolate chips.)  Whisk until melted.

While you're waiting on this to melt, grab 1 cup of chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate) and melt.  The original recipe says to melt this on the stove top but I opted for the microwave.  I just turned the power down to 50% and cooked for a minute at a time stirring after each minute until the chips are melted.  Once, they're melted take your mug and dip in the chocolate so that it covers the rim.  

Okay, so back to the mixture that should be melted on the stove by now.  Whisk in one cup of hot water at a time, whisking between until you have added 3 cups of water.  You can add less or more water depending on how rich you want the cocoa.  I suggest tasting between adding each cup of water as well.  After the desired amount of water is added heat until steaming.  B likes his coffee and tea hot so I made sure it was extra steamy.  

This treat isn't completely finished without a topping of whipped cream and sprinkles.  This could be Redi-Whip, Cool Whip, or if you don't have either you can improvise, like I did.  I typically keep heavy cream in the fridge so I mixed about 1 cup of heavy cream with 1/4 cup of sugar (these are estimated measurements) on high in my mixer until it was fluffy.  

Ladle the cocoa in to the chocolate rimmed mug, add a dallop of whipped cream and sprinkles, and ENJOY!

What a great Valentine morning surprise or dessert after a romantic meal together.  Whenever or however you decide to share this with your Valentine make sure you let me them know that you love them!