Serving Up {Dessert}: Frozen Hot Chocolate

Frozen Hot Chocolate is a popular treat, made super popular by the Serendipity 3 Restaurant in New York City (and more recently at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas).  I remember on a trip to NYC years ago, waiting for over an hour just to get into Serendipity 3 to try their famous hot chocolate.  The next trip to the Big Apple we decided to get reservations for dinner to bypass the wait (you can only get reservations if you are eating dinner - no reservations for dessert only) but the meal was really just our ticket to get to the dessert!  And while we have discovered other delicious goodies at Serendipity 3 (Deep Fried Oreo Sundae and a Frozen Mango "goodness" to name a couple) we always go back to the frozen hot chocolate!

Since we no longer live in Vegas, and our next trip to NYC is a ways off, I needed to get my Frozen Hot Chocolate fix here at home.  Thanks to the internet I was able to search for Frozen Hot Chocolate and come up with loads of recipes.  I read a handful, compared them all to the supposed "original" and then went from there.  Along with tweaking the amounts of sugar and hot cocoa mix and opting for canned whipped cream over whipping my own, I used a mint hot cocoa mix when I made this for my husband for Father's Day because if there is one thing my husband loves more than chocolate, it would be MINT chocolate.  The result....delicious!

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FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE     
(recipe adapted from Serendipity 3 Restaurant via abc news)
printable version

4 ounces high quality chocolate (I used 1/2 semi sweet and 1/2 white)
3 Tbs. hot chocolate mix (I used Stephen's Mint Truffle)
2 Tbs. sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 cups ice
Whipped cream
Chocolate shavings

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt chocolate in a small heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until blended.  Remove from heat, slowly add half a cup of the milk, and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into a chilled glass and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.