Not your kid's hot chocolate

I've launched a little food-related project in conjunction with the folks at Fooducopia, a site where small food producers sell their products. My part in this is that I'll be creating recipes specifically for products sold on the Fooducopia site. This is one of those recipes. This time the secret ingredient was Alpine Toffee.

I'm pretty sure that if you have some toffee, you're not going to grind it up and use it as an ingredient, right? You're going to eat is. As is. Right out of the bag.

If you're going to serve it, though, you might break it into smaller pieces. And then, when that bag is empty, you'll have those yummy crumbly bits at the bottom of the bag. You could use them on top of muffins or cupcakes, but let's face it, there aren't going to be enough of them for a whole batch of cupcakes. And you're probably not going to want to take a hammer to the toffee to make more crumbles.

But you want to use them, right?

They make a perfect garnish for some adult hot chocolate. Might as well top the hot chocolate with some whipped cream, too, And then serve the toffee alongside. It's an adult indulgence, whether it's dessert or your special evening treat.

You can make your hot chocolate any way you like - from a mix, or from unsweetened cocoa. Many recipes suggest using powered milk, but I prefer to make it with regular milk if I'm starting with good cocoa. For convenience, you can buy sweetened cocoa, and just add hot milk.

Of course, you can spike your cocoa with anything you like. Amaretto would be nice, or even a coffee liqueur. But to go with toffee, I thought rum was the perfect companion. It's made from sugar cane and it pairs nicely with desserts.

Spiked Hot Cocoa

Hot cocoa, made from your favorite recipe or mix
Rum, to taste
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Toffee crumbs

Make the hot chocolate according to your favorite recipe. Meanwhile, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer (or whisk by hand, if you prefer) until the cream is whipped to soft peaks.

Serve the hot chocolate with a splash (or more, to taste) of the rum. Top with the whipped cream and garnish with the toffee crumbles. Serve with whole pieces of toffee.

To be clear, I'm not reviewing or endorsing the products in this recipe. I've created the recipe for Fooducopia to post on its site and I'm re-posting the recipe here for my readers as well. Then again, since I created the recipe, rest assured that I liked it. I don't cook stuff that we're not going to eat.