The oxymoron drink of the gods

I enjoy trying new recipes, especially when they involve chocolate, and tonight I made something fun and different.

Perhaps you've heard of Serendipity 3, the somewhat infamous and recently troubled restaurant in NYC. It was known to me for its frozen hot chocolate (or, as they call it, Frrrozen Hot Chocolate) that I'd heard about many times over the years (even before Ms. Oprah brought it to the masses), but which I'd never had. Of course, I'd puzzled over how they could call it hot chocolate and make it frozen, but I consigned it to that part of my mind where jumbo shrimp resides and went on with my life.

Recently, my mom bought a cookbook that has a recipe for frozen hot chocolate I wanted to try. While checking the Web to see what ingredients I'd need before coming home to make it, however, I saw that Serendipity had made their recipe public amid much fanfare and it sounded better than the one we had. Apparently it's not the actual recipe the restaurant uses (which makes sense to me; these sort of things are often adapted for public consumption because much of America wouldn't know Callebaut or Valrhona if it reached up and bit them on the butt) but it's accessible and easy enough to make. It was a really delicious dessert treat, served up in a cozy-looking mug with a mound of whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate sprinkles, even with it as cold here as it was tonight.

Next time...and there will be a next time...I'll use better chocolate (I used what we had on hand and it was pretty pedestrian stuff) and make sure more people are around to share its generous portions.

So grab a blender and make someone happy with a cup of frozen chocolate goodness.