Hot Chocolate!

I recently had a request for my "liquid chocolate" hot chocolate recipe that I made for some friends in New Hampshire more than 5 years ago. The problem is, I made up that hot chocolate on the fly without a recipe. This weekend I spent some time in the kitchen concocting a recipe that I could give them that would taste very similar to the hot chocolate I made for them in New Hampshire. Here's the result.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
3 cinnamon sticks (4 inch sticks)
3 cups of 2% milk/1 cup of heavy whipping cream (or you can use 1 quart (4 cups) of Half and half in place of the milk and whipping cream)
1 bag of milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz bag)

Directions:
Boil the cinnamon sticks in the water for at least 3 minutes (water is a better solvent than milk and will extract more cinnamon flavor from the sticks than the milk will). Reduce heat to low. Add the milk/cream OR the half and half to the water/cinnamon mixture. Add chocolate chips and mix until thoroughly melted and blended in with the rest of the liquid.

You can also add 1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder in addition to the chocolate chips if you like your hot chocolate tasting more dark. I recommend tasting the hot chocolate as is, though, before adding the cocoa to make sure your taste buds need the extra cocoa.

ENJOY!