Red Wine Hot Chocolate

Very little beats a thick, dark hot chocolate on a chilly day, except adding a bit of red wine to it! Not just as an afterthought, but cooked along with the chocolate so the flavour mellows but adds something special to the end result, not super wine-y, but complex and grown up. Can you skip it? Sure, it’ll still be the hot chocolate of your dreams!

• 1/4 cup red wine (60 ml) (any kind you like to drink, I used a Shiraz)
• 115 gms dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 3/4th cup whole milk, at room temperature (190 ml)
• 2 to 3 tbsps water, at room temperature
• 1 to 2 tbsps caster sugar, depending on how sweet you want it
• Whipped cream to serve, optional