46.6° and Cloudy

Yesterday, it was warm and sunny. Today, it’s cold and cloudy. Sigh—such is springtime in western NY. But other than making the grass look strikingly greener and the tulips more stunningly vibrant in contrast, gray skies are good for inspiring some pretty satisfying sweets.
               Here’s a simple one I concocted on my own one day, driven by the desire to taste something similar to a mocha, but without the milk and coffee or the trip to Starbucks. Really, it's just homemade hot chocolate, but I like to think of it as something a bit more special than that:

1.     Fill a coffee mug about two-thirds full with Silk Original Soymilk, or some other form of non-dairy milk product.

2.     Fill about half of the remaining third of empty space in your coffee mug with Silk French Vanilla Creamer.

3.     Take a small-size cooking pot and pour the soymilk mixture from the mug into the pot.

4.     Grab a container of cocoa powder and scoop two tablespoons of it into the pot.

5.     Turn on the heat. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring all the while to break up the bits of cocoa powder.

6.     Wait until the mixture begins frothing and rising to the top of the pot. Turn off the heat immediately.

7.     Use a strainer to pour the cocoa blend back into your coffee mug. (The strainer is key, as chunks of pure cocoa powder are bound to have formed during the boiling process, no matter how well you stirred—or at least, I’ve found this to be true in my experience.)

8.     Top off what’s in your mug with another dash of Silk French Vanilla Creamer, both to cool it down and add a touch more sweetness. (Obviously, if you’d prefer a less sugary drink, leave out this last part.)

           And there you have it—a coffee-free cocoa mocha, or something to that effect. You know what goes perfectly with this soul-soothing beverage? You guessed it—Pamela’s Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Seriously, they should be paying me to write this. Enjoy!