I love Starbuck’s   Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate – but the nearest Starbuck’s is almost 2 hours away!

We desperately needed to find a recipe we could make at home, because – let’s face it – you never know when a craving will hit!

So Dagmar and I hit the kitchen with lots of enthusiasm and a recipe to try.

An hour later we had four dirty saucepans, major sugar buzzes – and some amazing salted caramel hot chocolate.

***At this point – those of you who need a quick fix – simply make an envelope of hot chocolate mix, squirt  some caramel ice cream topping in it and sprinkle it with salt and enjoy.

If – however – you want the real deal – so rich and creamy and wonderful that the Hallelujah chorus plays when you drink it – keep reading.***

Let’s start with the caramel sauce. The original recipe was a disaster. (That’s why we had so many dirty saucepans – what a mess!)

So I dug out a recipe for caramel sauce that I pinned on Pinterest. Hot diggety! That was some seriously good caramel! It was so good that you could eat it by the spoonful! (not that I would know from personal experience or anything ! 🙂 But seriously – you should try it with a whole almond!)

Caramel Sauce

1/4 c. butter
1 c. corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat stirring constantly. Keep cooking and stirring until the temperature reaches 235 -240 degrees (soft ball stage).

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

At this point – you could make a delectable caramel candy by pouring the caramel mixture into a foil-lined baking dish and refrigerating. Then cut into squares and enjoy. Or – you could add nuts or coat with chocolate…but I’m getting carried away.

We’re making caramel sauce here – so you need to add half – half to prevent the caramel from turning hard. (We didn’t add enough and ours turned into a semi-solid that makes it very difficult to sneak out of the fridge when the kids aren’t looking!)

Now for the hot chocolate part. You could use a packet if you wish, or my hot chocolate recipe, or even hot milk with chocolate syrup stirred in. But if you want to go over the top – try this one.

Uber Rich Hot Chocolate

12 oz. chocolate
1 c. heavy cream
milk

Melt together the chocolate and heavy cream in a double broiler.

When melted and mixed, add milk until you reach the desired consistency and chocolately goodness.

Now let’s assemble –

Coat the inside of a mug with the caramel sauce and fill with hot chocolate. Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on the very top and behold your masterpiece.

Now slowly inhale the chocolate aroma before taking your first sip.

Did you hear the music?

Yep – I thought so.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post with Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace.