French Hot Chocolate With Homemade Custard

Transport yourself to Paris with this decadent French Hot Chocolate recipe made with real chocolate, whole milk, and creamy homemade custard.

What Is French Hot Chocolate?

French Hot Chocolate, or le chocolat chaud, is not like your typical American hot chocolate. It’s thicker, less sweet, and oh-so luxurious. Truly a treat for serious chocolate lovers.

I read in Food and Wine that Parisian restaurants often make hot chocolate that contains crème pâtissière, which is French for ‘custard’. Except that I have not been able to find a recipe online for French hot chocolate that actually includes it. So I have no idea if this is traditional or not, but I decided to try it. And I’m here to say that whether it’s traditional or not no longer matters to me, because it’s sublime! 

Difference Between French Hot Chocolate and American

Hot chocolate in France isn’t made with powder, like many American versions. Even food-truck-style vendors use real milk and real chocolate. It also tends to be less sweet, and quite thick, also. This hot chocolate has a very thick velvety texture, almost like a drinkable pudding. It makes me think of the phrase “drinking chocolate”.

Since it is thicker and less sweet, it’s actually quite an adult drink in France, and not really something that my kids like.

Since it is so thick and rich, I recommend serving it in small cups. You can always pour yourself more, of course!

Note that if you’d like your French hot chocolate to be thinner, skip the custard and/or use extra milk to get to the consistency that you prefer.

Ingredients

For this hot chocolate recipe, you need milk, powdered sugar, and just a pinch of espresso powder. Instead of the espresso powder, a pinch of instant coffee can be used or a teaspoon of actual coffee.

You also need high quality chocolate, some vanilla custard, and ideally whipped cream to top your mug with. Note that you can leave out the custard, if you’d like. You can instead just use an extra half cup of milk or heavy cream.

And, instead of the plain whipped cream, it is very French to use chantilly cream, which is whipped cream that is sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla. This whipped cream recipe is therefore technically also chantilly cream since it has sugar and vanilla in it.

What Kind Of Milk?

It is typical for French hot chocolate to be made with a full-fat milk and not with cream. I’ve seen some recipes that call for half whole milk and half heavy whipping cream, though, so that’s an option. I wouldn’t add the cream if using the custard though. That would be overkill.

You can also use fat-free milk or evaporated milk, but using fat-free isn’t going to be as rich of a result.

What Type Of Chocolate To Use?

This is definitely the most important ingredient and you don’t want to skimp here. You want a good quality chocolate bar that’s marked at least 70% cocoa. This is a bittersweet chocolate with less sugar in it than you would find in milk chocolate. While I do have recipes for hot chocolate with chocolate chips as well as hot cocoa made with cocoa powder, those just won’t do for this version.

For context, milk chocolate contains less than 40% cocoa while semi-sweet is around 60%. We’re looking for a bittersweet chocolate that’s 70% cocoa, but if you love dark chocolate you can go even higher for that rich, powerful chocolate flavor.

How To Make French Hot Chocolate

The Custard

First, you make the custard, if you’re using it. You can get more information in my Homemade Vanilla Custard post, but I’ll share the basic recipe with you here.

You’ll whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, and 2 pinches of salt in a saucepan. Whisk in 3 egg yolks until smooth. Stir in a cup of whole milk and half a cup of heavy cream. Add in a split vanilla bean or a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it starts to bubble and thicken up. It’ll take about 4-5 minutes. Take off the heat and continue to stir for another minute. Pour through a sieve to remove any clumps and it’s ready to use in your hot chocolate or be chilled in the fridge. When the custard is warm, it has a sauce-like thickness. Once it’s cold, it will set into almost a pudding.

The recipe makes 2 cups of homemade custard and you only need 1/2 cup for every two servings of French Hot Chocolate. Save the rest for more hot chocolate later or to enjoy with fruit or to drizzle over cake or pie.

The Hot Chocolate

Now that the custard is ready, we can start on the hot chocolate. Stir together the milk, sugar, and espresso powder in a saucepan and warm over medium heat. We want it very warm, but not boiling.

Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate. The chocolate is being melted in by the heat of the milk, just like how you make ganache. Return to the heat on low and continue to stir until very warm.

Finally, remove from the heat and stir in your delicious homemade custard. Serve in mugs topped with whipped cream.

I can’t wait for you to taste this amazing drink!

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