Turtle Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Recipe

Have you ever wondered why we call it hot cocoa half of the time and regular hot chocolate the other half of the time? The answer is very simple really and makes complete sense.

Hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder, therefore it doesn't have cocoa butter in the ingredients and hot chocolate is made from chocolate (which contains both cocoa and cocoa butter).

It seems pretty obvious and I had never really thought about why there are two names until I went to post this recipe and was wondering what to call it.

You may have noticed my set today is dun duh duh dah - snow! Yes, lovely, lacy, glittery, perfectly bright, and gorgeously white - bitter cold snow.

There is actually a story behind it. Not that you care, but I just love the memories so I have to share. When I was young my siblings and I would go out to play in the snow and I got this grand idea once to build giant chairs out of snow, as large as our little legs could roll and push a giant snowball.

Yeah, they'd get pretty heavy, it would probably be such a funny thing to watch us little kids trying to do. Anyways, we'd get our "thrones" as big as we could, then build a step in front so we could climb to the top of it (but it's not like it was large enough that we actually needed the step =), then we would build a backrest and armrests on each side (snow is pretty mold-able under the proper conditions, on powdery snow days we'd never be able to do it).

After our hard work was complete, I climbed onto my chair, and about then I realized how cold I was (because when you have work to do it's easy to forget such things), and I decided I needed a cup of hot cocoa to drink while sitting in my throne.

So, I shaped a little cup holder into one of the armrests, ran inside, prepared my hot cocoa, and then returned to my prized piece of art. I'd sit in my chair until my butt started to go numb from being so cold from the chair - that was essentially made of ice (which only took a few minutes haha) sipping my warm cup of cocoa. It was so much fun.

As you see because of that I will always love hot cocoa and not just because of its silky smooth, warm chocolaty decadence. Now if I'd had this caramel hot chocolate back then I really would have felt like royalty on my throne.

I had some caramel sauce waiting for good use in my fridge and I thought seeing as it's been negative-degree weather it was the perfect time for hot cocoa. This hot chocolate is blissful, to say the least. I will say, yes you could use store-bought caramel sauce but it won't be near as good as what you get with the homemade caramel sauce. It's worth the little bit of extra effort.

If you want a salted caramel version, simply sprinkle some Maldon sea salt flakes over the top. This recipe really is very versatile and can be prepared to suit your personal taste. You can add in more chocolate, use more caramel sauce, you could use semi-sweet chocolate chips, or even cocoa powder and sugar.

I think it would also be delicious with dulce de leche in place of the caramel. However you make it, don't forget to drizzle the top generously with caramel, it's the best part - when you get a sip of half hot chocolate, half caramel drizzled whipped cream, or marshmallows. MMMMM. Enjoy!

I don't usually show the set (and don't you love how I call it a "set" like I'm some pro photographer - I wish =), but this is my view, peering out the window after I nearly froze my hands off getting the above pics.

I came inside and ran my hands under warm water, the sting ah. Then I walked back over to the porch and peered out at the gorgeous little beauty waiting and decided it was worth going back out for =).

I know this is turning into a seriously lengthy post, but I've been waiting for a great fit for my snowflake photos. Around Christmas time we had the most gorgeous snowflake storm I've ever seen. The snowflakes were visible to the naked eye. I spent about 2 hours taking pictures of snowflakes.

They were stunning, to say the least. I wish I would have had a ridiculously expensive camera along with a macro lens that captures perfect detail. Rather I own a Canon Rebel,  a 50mm macro lens and I don't even own a tripod.

For close-ups like this, it would be nice so I'm not sitting there holding my breath trying not to shake my camera. The second was my favorite photo. I call it the mother snowflake.

I wanted to call it such because it was like a mother snowflake, if you look closely there is a small snowflake safely resting upon it. Snowflakes truly are gorgeous.

]]> https://www.cookingclassy.com/caramel-hot-chocolate/feed/ 41 4049 https://www.cookingclassy.com/caramel-cheesecake-apple-dip-3-ingredient-3-minute-recipe/ https://www.cookingclassy.com/caramel-cheesecake-apple-dip-3-ingredient-3-minute-recipe/#comments Thu, 07 Jun 2012 04:48:00 +0000 https://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/06/caramel-cheesecake-apple-dip-3-ingredient-3-minute-recipe/ Caramel Cheesecake Apple Dip is a quick combination of whipped cream cheese, caramel topping, and crushed graham crackers, making the absolute BEST dip for apples (and anything else you can dream up). 

The ultimate apple dip! It's rich, it's sweet, it's tangy and it's the perfect compliment to fresh apples. Sure to be a crowd favorite and you'll love how easy it is to make!

Caramel Cheesecake Apple Dip

I wanted a simple dip for my apple one day and caramel apples are one of my favorite desserts, as is cheesecake, so I thought I may as well combine them all into one quick and ridiculously simple dip.

To say this dip is good is speaking much too lightly. I'm totally in love with it! It makes a great last minute treat for a party because, really it can be made in just a few minutes (and if you have an apple slicer things are almost too easy).

I almost always have cream cheese on hand, since it's such a great ingredient for sweet and savory dishes. Caramel topping may not be a regular ingredient in your house, but the good news is that jars of caramel topping are shelf stable and easy to keep on hand. Graham cracker crusts are easy to buy and save time, but you can also use a food processor to crush graham crackers into tiny pieces for dipping.

Serve it with your favorite kind of apples (I think it would also be delicious with bananas and maybe a drizzling of chocolate mmm) and enjoy!

Other Dips to Try

I'm a huge fan of dessert dips, whether paired with fruit, cookies, crackers, or whatever you like best. Quick dips are important to have in your back pocket for hosting, after school snacks, or just to get more fruit into your diet. Here are some of my favorite dips to try:

• Chocolate Fruit Dip
• S'mores Dip
• Cannoli Dip
• Nutella Cheesecake Dip
• Apple Pie Dip
• Easy Fruit Dip