Last night we got back from the fireworks display at Warwick Racecourse, and Damyanti suggested making some hot chocolate, having found a recipe in ‘delicious’ magazine which included double cream, vanilla paste and Frangelico liqueur – none of which we had, and the last of which we’d never heard of. Frangelico turned out to be a hazelnut liqueur.

So I improvised and came up with this alternative (amounts for one mug):

• Hot milk
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp Nutella
• 1 shot brandy (depending on how you like it – just under a shot and I’d say you won’t get the brandy flavour, but you will know there is alcohol in it)

Adding the Nutella seemed to help mellow out the brandy, and make the drink just the thing for a chilly autumn night.