Valentine's Day Hot Chocolate with Chili

Heat the milk in a small saucepan together with the ground cinnamon, chili powder, and the seeds scraped from the vanilla pod (as well as the scraped pod itself for more flavor). Bring the mixture just to a simmer, but do not let it boil.

Break the dark chocolate into pieces and add to the hot milk. Melt while stirring constantly until the chocolate is completely dissolved and the mixture is smooth and velvety. Remove the vanilla pod.

Sweeten the hot chocolate with maple syrup. Taste carefully: the heat of the chili should be subtly noticeable in the background without dominating the chocolate flavor. Add another small pinch of chili if needed. Finally, stir in the whipping cream.