From Garden to Table: Josephine’s Lavender Hot Chocolate Recipe

By Kathy Gehrt
Published on June 14, 2012
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Lavender was the secret ingredient in the nightcap Josephine created for Napoleon. Entrance your lover with the aromatic recipe Josephine's Lavender Hot Chocolate.
Lavender was the secret ingredient in the nightcap Josephine created for Napoleon. Entrance your lover with the aromatic recipe Josephine's Lavender Hot Chocolate.
2 / 2
"Discover Cooking with Lavender" by Kathy Gehrt is an inspiring guide that will help you infuse your kitchen with invigorating fragrances and flavor. Explore the culinary wonders of lavender in this herbal cookbook.

Keep Josephine’s Lavender Hot Chocolate recipe around for cold nights. You can add an ounce of coffee as you drink it to wake up in the morning, or add a small amount of liqueur to it for a special occasion. Any way you ammend it, this recipe is as enchanting as it is delicious. Kathy Gehrt’s Discover Cooking with Lavender(Florentia Press, 2010) provides this lavender recipe in the following excerpt from the chapter “Delectable Drinks.”

Josephine’s Lavender Hot Chocolate

Makes 2 servings

Lavender was the secret ingredient in the nightcap Josephine created for Napoleon. Not only delicious, this drink always seemed to put Napoleon in a “romantic” mood. Serve on Valentine’s Day and add a small amount of liqueur for a special touch. Josephine added an ounce of coffee to her potion. 

• 3 cups whole milk or half-and-half
• 2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Pour milk into a medium saucepan and stir in lavender buds. Set over medium heat and bring just to a boil.

2. Remove mixture from heat and steep for 3 to 5 minutes, or longer for a stronger lavender flavor.

3. Strain the milk to remove the lavender buds, and then pour the milk back into the saucepan. With the saucepan over medium heat, whisk in the chopped chocolate until melted and smooth.

4. Whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt; remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla extract.

5. Divide among coffee mugs. Top with whipped cream or a homemade marshmallow.

This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from Discover Cooking with Lavender: Fresh & Flavorful Recipes, published by Florentia Press, 2010.


Click here for the main article, From Garden to Table: Cooking with Lavender.

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