hot cocoa

What is better than hot cocoa and a Christmas movie on a cold night?  Not much!  But when you're not able to have dairy in your house, it severely limits the cocoa options to...well...nothing.  (Perhaps there is a packet option out there, but I've yet to find one.)

Well, worry no more.  It's so simple, it's so delicious.  This "recipe" is more of a guideline.  It will fill up a small mason jar (see photo), for you to use multiple times, or once, depending on the size of cups you use.  When I make this for my kids, I use tiny tea cups, so I put about a tablespoon of the mixture in each time.  If you were using a full sized coffee cup, I'd put more like 2 or 3 tablespoons in...or more.  You can eyeball it, and add more if it's not rich enough for you.

So, the process is simple.  Bring some coconut milk to just below a boil.  We don't need to burn anyone, we just need to melt the cocoa and sugar together.  Once it's steaming and hot, pour it over the cocoa mixture in the cup and stir, stir, stir.  A trick I have, to make sure you're not left with any lumps of powder, is to pour a little bit of the cold milk in with the powder, and mix it up, then add the hot milk on top of that.  The hot milk will dissolve the rest without any issues.  Garnish with marshmallows of course, and you're set.

Now, here are some extra ideas.  First, I use the boxed coconut milk made for drinking for this recipe.  If you want a really rich treat (you're someone who likes full fat milk, admit it) use the light canned stuff.  I am sure it's AMAZING and sinful.  I think the full fat canned stuff would be too much, but who am I to judge?  You're an adult, you do what you want. You could also substitute any other milk for it, of course, but we only use coconut in our house (dairy/soy allergy, and rice milk is so watery) so I can't vouch for it's awesomeness. I even tried melting just a smidge of coconut oil into my own cup and it took it to the next level, dude.   Try adding some cinnamon or peppermint for a little variation.  Stir with a candy cane.  So much you can do!  It's the holidays, get to packing on those pounds.  You have until December 31st before the guilt sets in anyway.

We enjoy ours while watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas, because a 22 minute running time is about as much as my kids will pay attention to, and also how long it takes them to drink a tiny cup of cocoa.  Ah, Christmas.  I just love you.