The Flavor Ina Garten Uses To Put An Elegant Twist On Frozen Hot Chocolate

Popularized by the iconic Upper East Side restaurant Serendipity 3, "Frrrozen Hot Chocolate" has been a decadent favorite since 1954. According to Serendipity 3's creative chef Joe Calderone, the top secret recipe includes 14 different cocoas, milk, milk powder, sugar, and ice, all blended together and spooned into a shockingly large goblet with a mountain of whipped cream on top. Author, cook, and East Hampton local Ina Garten took inspiration from the popular New York dessert destination, but gives the recipe her own elegant twist. 

As she shared on her Food Network show (via Flavour Network), Garten swaps the 14 super secret cocoas for the more readily available unsweetened cocoa powder. She also melts bittersweet chocolate instead of semisweet into her mixture and adds a dash of vanilla before blending. But one of her added flavors is a gamechanger. 

"I love coffee and chocolate together," she says, before adding brewed espresso. Many chocolatey recipes call for coffee in some form, but Garten adds brewed espresso with intention. "Because this is a drink, I'm using espresso rather than instant coffee granules," she says. If you're making Garten's frozen hot chocolate for a younger crowd, she adds that decaf espresso also works well. Conversely, if you're making frozen hot chocolate to please a crowd of adults, Garten's website recommends swapping the espresso for Kahlúa. "This could be a drink in the afternoon, it could be a dessert, it could be anything you want it to be. It could be breakfast," Garten happily explains.

Whether you use instant espresso powder, brewed coffee, or espresso, adding coffee to your chocolate desserts helps deepen the flavor of cocoa. If you're not a coffee connoisseur, don't worry, a dash of espresso doesn't turn your chocolatey vision into a coffee confection; it simply elevates the taste of your treat. 

Garten, for instance, adds hot, freshly brewed coffee to her go-to chocolate cake recipe. "It's rich and chocolatey with a cup of coffee in the batter to make it even more delicious," she says on her website. For her chocolate cake with mocha frosting, she adds instant espresso powder to the cake itself and both espresso powder and Kahlúa to the frosting to truly amp up the coffee taste. If you love Garten's idea for elevating classic hot chocolate with a luscious liqueur, we have five stellar ingredients to try for a boozy hot cocoa upgrade.