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.

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.

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.