Hot Chocolate- the hard and easy way

Not that Swiss Miss or Nestle stuff, but a true hot chocolate that warms your soul.

~10-15 minutes once you get your ingredients. The 'simple' way is at the very bottom of this post.

This is actually the first recipe I learned, because I love the smell of chocolate. It's a rather straightforward recipe as long as you don't burn the bottom of your saucepan. My goal is to explain these recipes as simply as possible so that even the most inexperienced of y'all know what's up.

Here's what you'll need for roughly 2 cups of hot chocolate: 

3/2 tablespoons of cacao powder (no sugar): If you want an even richer flavor, up it to 2-3 tablespoons. We're not going for milk chocolate, but for a stronger and darker flavor.
1 (generous) tablespoon of brown sugar
1/7th cup water: rough estimate.

Almost two cups of milk: because you got that 1/7th cup of water.
Cinnamon: This spice will give the hot chocolate a slight smooth, nutty flavor.
Cayenne: VERY IMPORTANT. This spice isn't used to make it spicy, but to keep the chocolate favor lingering in your mouth and throat for longer.
Vanilla extract: honestly just for the smell and smoothness, we'll add just one drop of this.

First Step:
Find a relatively small saucepan, place it on the stove at medium heat, and put in the water, brown sugar, and cacao. Make sure to stir it lightly and mix everything in. We're trying to caramelize this, so as the mixture heats up, make sure to continue stirring. You don't want it to just sit there and burn the bottom of the mixture.
As time goes on, you will notice that it becomes syrup-y. Keep on slowly stirring  until it begins leaving a strong gap of mixture behind the spoon. If you're getting some 'smoke', that's expected. As long as you've been stirring, you're not burning anything- water is just evaporating.
Image for reference: Even more of a gap should be present! After I reached that stage, I kept of stirring for another ~90 seconds. It should get to the point where if you displace a lot of the mixture, it won't be able to take it's place again for a while.

Second Step:
Pour in the milk, make sure to stir it around so that the original mixture and the milk actually combine. Continue your stirring. 

Third Step
Spice time, listen up.

This part is actually important. You don't want your hot chocolate to not have these, but you definitely don't want it to have too much.

   -   Add a 'pinch' of cinnamon, the equivalent of a small shake of the case.
   -   Also add a 'pinch' of cayenne, don't be scared of it being 'spicy', though.
   -   Add like ONE DROP of vanilla extract, I've screwed this up enough times that I can tell you from experience that anything more that a drop will make the whole thing taste like vanilla.
   -   Continue stirring these spices in.

Fourth step
"Nico, when do you know it's ready?"

It's just a feeling you get. Like something's about to happen, but you don't know what.

Even the most inexperienced will look at the mixture and say "this looks like hot chocolate". That's when it is done.

Pour and enjoy.

 

BUT WAIT (SIMPLE VERSION HERE)

Don't wanna go through the hassle of getting so many ingredients and scared of burning the bottom of your saucepan??? Someone has solved your problem.

ABUELITA CHOCOLATE TABLETS!

Find these in any "Hispanic Cuisine" section of grocery stores. Follow the instructions on the side and you'll get the same result.