Monday, October 29, 2007

Veganlicious Hot Chocolate of Doom!

Okay, there's really nothing doomriffic about this hot chocolate unless you count that I was watching Hellraiser while I made it. Yay for AMC's Monster Fest! It is veganlicious, though. Yeah, I totally made that word up. I dare you to use it. I dare you! See, if you don't, that's where the doom part comes in.

hotChocolate_001

So you're sitting at home watching a marathon of horror movies like all good boys and girls on Halloween week. Suddenly you think that you would really like to have some sort of dessert. Then you realize that it's 9pm and you don't really feel like baking something this late. And if you're like me, you don't have any sweets in the house unless you made it yourself. Tiptoe into the kitchen so the cenobites don't hear you and make yourself a cup of hot chocolate! This is such a great substitute for those times when you're wishing for something sweet, but either don't have anything or are trying to watch what you're eating.

You can add all kinds of crazy stuff to this, it's pretty much a bare bones hot chocolate recipe. It's more of a European style, though. Treat it like you would coffee and add sugar and soy cream to it to suit your own taste. Sometimes I'll splash in some Grand Marnier or Kahlua or something equally naughty.

Add a little dash of cayenne and cinnamon to make a really kick-ass Mexican hot chocolate. I do it that way more often than not. I don't tend to measure out the cayenne and cinnamon, but if I had to guess, I'd say that I add anywhere from 1/8 to 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon and just a pinch of cayenne.

I have to add a disclaimer about the measurements as well. I usually measure how much soy milk to use by fill my mug about three-quarters full and then dumping that amount into the pot. I think it's usually around a cup, though.

hotChocolate_002

Veganlicious Hot Chocolate of Doom!

1 Cup soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc.
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon sugar or agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a small pot add the soy milk and turn the heat to medium. Add the cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla. Whisk everything together until the cocoa has completely dissolved. This might take a minute or two. You shouldn't have any little pieces of cocoa floating around in your soy milk anymore. Keep whisking every minute or so for about 10, or until everything is almost boiling. If your hot chocolate starts to boil, turn the heat down, that's too hot!

Pour into your favorite mug and add soy cream or sugar if you want. I usually add soy cream to mine to make it a bit creamier. I don't like things that are to sweet, so I don't add any more sugar but you may want to.

See how easy it is to make your own hot chocolate? And it tastes even better than any mix you could buy as well.

11 comments:

  1. I've had a few cups of hot cocoa recently as well! It's finally starting to get chilly here in Pittsburgh and hot cocoa just makes it even better...

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  2. hey there I thought I would answer your dumpling question here..

    From the vegan family favorites cookbook..
    1 cup flour
    2tsp. baking powder
    1/2 tsp. salt
    1/2-3/4 cup soy milk
    2table spoon Oil.
    mix dry
    add wet and mix
    drop large table spoons in pot
    cover and cook for 10min uncover and cook another 10 min
    enjoy
    ohh it is soo about hot chocolate weather in our neck of the woods! I am lazy and buy the soy chocolate milk and heat that up.. when its on sale that is.
    Julee

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  3. Doom, indeed! If by doom you mean awesomeness!
    Hey, were you watching Hellraiser on Saturday night? We had it silently playing in the background at our Halloween party- gotta love those movie marathons...

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  4. Haha! I love the title of your hot cocoa. And, I have all the ingredients for this except soy cream; I'm definitely making some of this tonight. Thanks for sharing the recipe! :)

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  5. Julee - thanks for sharing your dumpling recipe! I'm going to try them next time.

    Bazu - It was Sunday night when I was watching Hellraiser, but I think they've been playing it pretty constantly. It's so awesome, usually I get excited by AMC's Fear Fridays, but now it's horror every day for a while. Yay!

    Veggie Cookster - You can leave out the soy cream if you don't have it. If you're using regular soy milk, the hot chocolate will be plenty thick and creamy. I just like a little extra in mine. Plus, it cools it all down slightly to add some soy cream straight from the fridge so I can drink it faster.

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  6. Dammit! I got all excited and thought that maybe upon drinking this hot chocolate, it transforms you into a She-Demon or a vampire or a zombie or something.

    *sniffle*

    Can you maybe tweak the recipe a little bit to include that??

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  7. Damn, I knew I was forgetting something. I think if you add some dust from ground up baby bones, it will help with the transformation.

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  8. Keep using doom, and and the "Doom Burgers" won't sound as cool ;)

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  9. ooooh i loooove making hot cocoa from scratch! it's so much tastier. i love mexican hot cocoa, but my favorite is doing vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and almond extract :)

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  10. Is it still really vegan with the cocoa powder? I just ask b/c sometimes cocoa powder has milk derivatives in it....

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  11. Yep, Green & Blacks are really good about labeling their products. The hot chocolate says on the back "Suitable for vegetarians and vegans" No milk in this one, just yummy dark chocolate. Mmmmmmmm...

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