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Winter has set in with a heavy storm. How about a cup of hot chocolate and a romantic book?

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200 g dark chocolate
750 ml milk
2 tsp baking cocoa
1 pinch of salt
1 - 2 tbsp sugar
200 g cream
Some baking cocoa for sprinkling

Heat the milk, remove the pan from the hob. Roughly chop the chocolate, add and melt while stirring with a whisk. Once the chocolate has completely melted, add cocoa powder, salt and sugar or 1 pinch of cinnamon to taste.

Pour the hot chocolate into 4 glasses or cups (250 ml each). Whip the cream until fluffy, spread on top, dust with cocoa powder and serve the hot chocolate immediately.

My sweetheart and I love the pre-Christmas season, the decorating, the lights and the romance that comes with it for us. Of course, you can also warm up with hot chocolate.
The highlight for us children on Sunday mornings was the fresh, warm cocoa in which we could dip our piece of plait or, on 6 December, the Grittibänz. As far as I can remember, the recipe went like this:

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1/2 litre water
1 normal heaped tablespoon of sugar (depending on how sweet you like your cocoa)
1 very heaped tbsp cocoa powder

Stir the sugar and cocoa into the water and bring to the boil. ATTENTION: it likes to boil over / it can boil over, so you should stand by.

Then add 1 litre of milk, still warm
and enjoy.

Only 2 days until Christmas!
It snowed today. Will we have another white Christmas this year?
We had mulled wine to warm us up:

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1 bottle = 0.75 litre red wine to your taste
1 cinnamon stick halved
4 cardamom seeds
4 cloves
1 tsp aniseed (I didn't have any star anise)
1 pinch of nutmeg
2 peppercorns or pepper from the mill
1/2 packet vanilla sugar
2 juniper berries
50 g raw sugar or rock candy (other sweeteners will also work)
2 oranges - zest removed (I didn't have any organic oranges, so only orange juice)
Other possible additions that I have already tried:
2 tsp rum
ginger
blackcurrant juice
1/2 lemon, juice and zest

Put everything together in a pan and heat up. The mulled wine should NOT boil. Only add the rum before serving, as the alcohol will evaporate. Pour hot through a tea strainer into cups and enjoy hot.

If you prefer it less vinous, you can dilute the wine with a little water or orange juice. - The mulled wine will then go a little further.

Once Christmas is over, New Year's Eve is already fast approaching.
Here's another recipe for my apple punch:

1 litre apple juice
3/4 cinnamon stick halved
3 cardamom seeds
3 cloves
1 star anise or anise seed
very little nutmeg
2 peppercorns or pepper from the mill
1/2 packet of vanilla sugar
1-2 juniper berries
30 g raw sugar or rock candy (other sweeteners will also work)
1 organic orange cut into pieces
1.5 dl orange juice (e.g. from the supermarket)

Put everything together in a pan and heat. Do not boil, as it loses its quality. Ladle hot into cups and enjoy hot.

Well-sealed leftover punch and mulled wine will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days and can be reheated.

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