Instant Hot Chocolate Mix

Instant Hot Chocolate Mix - topped with homemade maple whipped cream and caramel sauce

My son drinks a lot of hot chocolate and since the K-cups for the Keurig machine aren't particularly cheap, I decided it was time to figure out how to make a mix that would do the same thing, taste better and be a LOT cheaper.  I also had enough interest in my posting for instant chai mix that it warranted an encore of sorts so I thought this would kill two birds with one stone.

How does it taste?  I'll let my son do the honors, and this is a direct quote from him when he tasted it the first time, "Holy crap Dad - this stuff is REALLY good.".  An eloquent man of few words, my son.

He then had two more cups.

That's how I always know that I have a winner.

Ingredients

• 2 cups nonfat dry milk powder 
• 1/2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• 2 cups vanilla sugar  (plain sugar is just fine - vanilla sugar will simply give a bit of extra flavor)
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa (I use the dark chocolate cocoa - whatever you prefer will work)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice (optional)

This is a 32 oz jar. You can see this recipe makes enough to fill
the jar. If you'd like more it can easily be doubled (or tripled!).

Directions

1. Pour all ingredients into a food processor
2. Blend until mixture is the consistency of fine powder  (you can skip this step and simply mix by hand, but it will dissolve better if you take the time to do it)
3. Top with whipped cream or mini-marshmallows

To serve: Stir two or three tablespoons of the hot chocolate mixture (depending upon taste) into a mug of hot water. If you prefer an even creamier consistency, you can add hot milk instead of water.

Instant Chai Tea Mix - just add water!

A cup of hot chai.
Perfect for a cold winter day!

Anyone that knows me knows that I drink iced tea.  Morning, noon and night, that is pretty much all I drink...until recently.  I've always liked chai (and I do have a brewed version that I make into iced tea) but I very rarely drink ANYTHING hot.  No real reason other than a personal preference for cold drinks.

A couple of weeks ago we were at our local farmer's market (Coventry Regional Farmer's Market - if you're close enough to attend, I HIGHLY recommend it).  About once a month they have a "swap". Anyone can do it - you simply bring something homemade (it can be edible or a craft item) and people swap items they've brought with items from someone else. We love doing this and try to attend them whenever we can.  At the last swap, someone brought an instant chai tea mix. We ended up getting it in a swap and brought it home.  I hadn't thought much about it until we had a party last weekend and several people tried it and absolutely loved it.

That was enough for me - I had to figure out how to make it. I visited a number of sites that had their own version and came up with one that I liked. It's a bit different than some of the others that I've seen out there but the great thing about it is that you can quite easily tailor it to your own tastes.  If you don't care for cloves, leave them out. Want some allspice or nutmeg? Put in a pinch (or more).  There are no hard and fast rules - put in what you like, leave out what you don't until you get a combination that you want to stick with. I know people that even like a small bit of ground white pepper in their chai. Likewise with the milk powder - if you want something a bit "creamier", add a bit more of the milk powder.  If you want more of a tea taste, add more of the instant tea. 

You get the idea - make it yours!

Just add a spoonful (or two) and you're good to go!

Ingredients

• *1 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder 
• 1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• *2 1/2 cups vanilla sugar  
• 1 3/4 cups unsweetened instant tea (you can also use decaf instant tea if you prefer)
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

* If you don't have vanilla sugar, simply use 1 cup of French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer along with 2 1/2 cups of regular sugar instead.  If you do this, you can also cut the amount of dry milk powder down to 1 cup instead of 1 1/2 cups.  The important part here is simply getting the vanilla flavor into the mix in a dry format as opposed to liquid vanilla extract.

Directions

The final result should be a very fine powder like this.

1. In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla sugar (or flavored creamer), and instant tea. 
2. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg and allspice and mix well. 
3. In a food processor (or blender), blend 1-2 cups at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder (you can skip this step, but it will dissolve better if you take the time to do it).

To serve: Stir 1-2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture (depending upon taste) into a mug of hot water. If you prefer an even creamier consistency, you can add hot milk instead of water.

Butterbeer! (the frozen kind)

We were in Orlando last week and went to Disney and Universal.  It was very hot, very hectic and a lot of fun.  The inner nerd in me has to admit that my favorite part was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure.  My favorite part of THAT was the butterbeer.  I've been having withdrawals from it since I left the park!

Homemade Frozen Butterbeer!

If you've read the books (or been there) you know what it is. If not, I'm going to tell you how to make a reasonable facsimile at home. Since you'll have the the recipe and know how to make it, you'll never have to go through that cruel withdrawal process like I did!

(Frozen) Butterbeer!

• 2 liter bottle of cream soda
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 jar of butterscotch ice cream topping

1. Fill an ice tray (or muffin tins, or small plastic cups, etc) with the cream soda
2. Let freeze until solid (ours took about three hours)
3. Remove from freezer and put "cream soda ice" into a blender (it's important to have a blender that will chop ice well)
4. How much you use will depend upon how much you want to make at any given time.  If you're making enough for one person, three or four cubes may be enough.  If it's for a group, the entire tray (and maybe more) will be used
5. Add cream soda (unfrozen) to the blender along with some of the butterscotch topping (again, how much you use depends on how many you're making this for AND your tastes.  Use more butterscotch if you want it a bit sweeter and more or less soda depending upon how thick you want it)

For the topping

Butterbeer in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

1. Just before you're ready to start the blending process above, make the topping
2. Beat the heavy cream until it's just starting to thicken. You don't want it as thick as whipped cream - you want it to be more the consistency of beer foam
3. Add a bit of the butterscotch topping as you're beating the cream.  Again, how much will depend entirely upon your taste.  I would start out with just a little to get a light butterscotch flavor and add more if you want it sweeter (I didn't measure, but I'm guessing I used between 1/4 and a 1/3 cup).

Pour the frozen butterbeer into a cup and top with the whipped cream.  

You can drink it with or without a straw.  If you don't use the straw, it will give you a nice 'stache just like at the park!

Enjoy!!!