Get the recipe here.
If you're a '90s child, Tim Allen was basically your second father—and Santa Claus. He ruled the small screen as Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor on Home Improvement, and in 1994, he took his bellow-bark-laugh (and his sarcasm) to movie theaters as Scott Calvin, the man who accidentally scares Santa off his roof, and by virtue of 'the Santa Clause,' has to become the next Kris Kringle.
It's a holiday season must-watch, along with A Christmas Story and the Grinch, but despite his fame, Allen gets totally outshined by Judy the Elf. Or rather, Judy's mean cup of hot cocoa. On his first night at the North Pole, Judy serves silver mugs full of her top-secret hot chocolate recipe, a drink that took her 1,200 years to master.
BUY IT NOW: Silver stein mug, $25; Amazon
The drink seemed worth the wait. Later, when the new St. Nick has a cookie-and-cocoa dispenser installed in his sleigh (an ingenious move on par with the heroes who created pizza roll and Champagne dispensers in their fridges), you get your first real glimpse of the chocolate, which looks extra rich and thick. Almost like ganache.
Since 1994, I've dreamed of that cocoa—and I've finally found a recipe that's worthy of Judy herself. It may not have taken a century-plus (mere mortals don't have that kind of time!), but it's a riff on European drinking chocolate, kind of like the kind served at New York's famed City Bakery.
It's so rich you'll want to split a mug with a friend—or maybe serve it in shot-sized glasses, if you're not a chocoholic. But really, all self-control will evaporate three sips in.
Like Judy, it's not too hot, with extra chocolate, though I have failed her in one respect: Mine's stirred, not shaken, because have you ever held a shaker full of piping-hot cocoa, trying not to let it splatter?! Thankfully, I still have, oh, 1,178 years to master that last step.
PIN IT FOR LATER:
Follow Delish on Instagram.
