Hot Cocoa

It started getting cold this week. Below freezing cold. And that necessitates warm drinks.

I hadn’t tried making homemade hot cocoa till last winter. It’s clearly better than store-bought mixes. I always meant to post a recipe, but sometimes you just want to drink the hot cocoa instead of taking pictures while it goes cold. Lucky for you, I got my act together. And I humbly present this hot cocoa recipe for you to try.

Hot Cocoa

• ¼ cup sugar
• scant ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups unsweetened soymilk
• ½ teaspoon almond extract

1. Put the sugar and cocoa in a medium-sized saucepan. Stir together to break up the lumps of cocoa. (Note: At this point, the stove is not turned on yet.)
2. Heat the water in a microwave until almost boiling.
3. Add the water to the cocoa and sugar. Stir well, until sugar and cocoa are thoroughly incorporated. (It will look like chocolate syrup.)
4. Add the milk and almond extract. Turn the stove on to medium-high heat. While stirring, heat until the cocoa reaches desired temperature and the cocoa and sugar are completely dissolved.
5. Pour into mugs and serve.

Serves 2

Mike recently decided he likes cocoa with almond extract the best. Vanilla extract certainly works. Or orange extract, or mint extract, or a mix of vanilla and orange, or perhaps orange and almond. You get the idea.

It’s also nice to add cinnamon sometimes.

You can use cow milk to make this recipe. (Or any other alternative milk.) I like the soymilk over regular milk because you don’t have to worry about the milk scalding and getting that filmy layer.

I should probably also note that we used “dark” cocoa powder, which tastes more like dark chocolate (mmm). Regular cocoa should work just fine. Your cocoa might not look as dark as mine. Also, see that picture of the cocoa and sugar above? Those are the lumps you want to get rid of.