Archers Farms Sea Salt Caramel Hot Cocoa Mix

This past Saturday, I hosted a small event called Cookies & Cocoa.  It was a very small and nice cookie swap.  Friday I was running around trying to find my favorite Land O Lakes hot chocolate mix packets and boy the stores were so picked over.

I ran into Target and found some other brands and the Archers Farms Sea Salt Caramel looked very interesting.

OH MY WORD!!!!  This stuff is wonderful!!!!  It was rich and you could really pick up the Sea Salt and Caramel taste.  I am definitely going back and finding more boxes to stock my pantry!!!

Snowman Soup

Since we were out passed midnight for New Years, I figured we could indulge this morning for breakfast.

I was making a nice cup of hot tea for me and asked Miss V if she would like tea or hot chocolate.  She smiled and said snowman soup!  Silly girl, that wasn't one of the options, but I will happily oblige her request.

 I am thinking that those marshmallows will not be enough for her.

 Marshmallows and Hershey Kisses all melted.  I even threw in another small handful of marshmallows.

Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice Drink

I have been searching high and low for the recipe for Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice drink.  There are lots of copycat recipes and then....I stumbled upon the real recipe from an ex-barista.

Here is the link to her blog entry.

The key is you must have the Cinnamon Dolce syrup.  I didn't even have to ask for a pump, the sweet girl working just grabbed one for me.

Ingredients for a single cup
Apple Juice 12 oz
Cinnamon Dolce Syrup 3 pumps or 3 tbs
Caramel Sauce (the ice cream topping kind)
Whipped Cream

I don't understand their sizes at all, I am just not into fru-fru coffee.  Just give me a Dunkies Medium, 2 sugar and cream.

Woops went off topic...Anyways, I decided to make a double sized batch so that Miss V and I could have them in our pretty new glass mugs.

So I poured 24 ounces of apple juice into my big 4 cup glass measuring cup and went to put the handy dandy pump into the syrup and proceeded to spill a bunch.  Why and how?  Well the pump is about 3 inches to long for my bottle so it spilled out the top and all over the counter.

After wiping up the sticky mess, I measured out 6 tablespoons of the syrup and poured them into the apple juice.  I microwaved the juice/syrup for about 3 minutes until it was hot.

I then poured the hot juice into our new glasses.

Then of course we had to have a squirt of whipped cream.

Then a quick swirl of caramel syrup.

The verdict....oh yea!!!  It was right on!  Both Miss V and  I loved it!

Butterbeer Version 2

This time we did a little something different with the Butterbeer last night.

1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp powdered sugar
2 12 oz of your favorite cream soda
2 tsp vanilla butter and nut flavoring or butter extract

Start by measuring the heavy whipping cream and the extract into a cocktail shaker. Next, add the powdered sugar. Shake briskly until mixture begins to thicken.

Pour the cream soda from the can or bottle directly into two individual mugs.

Now gently pout the whipping cream mixture so that it floats on top in a layer about a half inch thick. Enjoy!

The whipped cream tasted much better with the extract added to it.

Butterbeer

So Saturday night we decided to have a Dinner and Movie Night.  Miss V checked out the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook from the library.  We were dissapointed that Butterbeer was not listed in there so I did a little Googling and found a simple recipe.

The original recipe is for 4 drinks, but only two of us were going to be drinking them so I halved the recipe.

1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp powdered sugar
2 12 oz of your favorite cream soda
2 tsp vanilla butter and nut flavoring or butter extract

Start by measuring the heavy whipping cream into a cocktail shaker. Next, add the powdered sugar. Shake briskly until mixture begins to thicken.

Pour the cream soda from the can or bottle directly into two individual mugs and then add 1 tsp of the flavoring or extract to each.

Now gently pout the whipping cream mixture so that it floats on top in a layer about a half inch thick. Enjoy!

We got a little crazy with the whipped cream it was so good!  As you can tell Miss V really enjoyed her Butterbeer.

Nutella Milkshake

Last night Miss V picked out the Nutella Milkshake.

Blend one pint of vanilla ice cream, 1/2 cup nutella and 1/4 cup of milk.

Makes 2.

This one was just "ok". 

Mango Yogurt Milk Shake

I love the little booklet that comes in Food Network Magazine that has 50 recipes.  We finally got around to trying one on Friday night.  I picked the Mango-Yogurt one.

Blend one pint of mango sorbet, 1 cup chopped mango and 2/3 cups of plain yogurt.  Top with chopped mango. 

Makes 2.

This one was so yummy, light and refreshing.  As you can see it did make two nice sized milkshakes.

Hot Cocoa Mix

I cannot keep hot chocolate mix in the pantry.  My kids go through it so fast.  So I searched for a homemade mix.  I kept seeing reviews on Alton Brown's recipe.  So I just made a batch.

2 cups powdered sugar (I added another 1/3 cup)
1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.

Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk


What I did was to pulse the powdered milk, cornstarch, salt and cayenne in my food processor so that the milk powder was finer.  I then pulsed the cocoa powder and sugar in batches and poured it into a Tupperware container.

I just made a cup and used a heaping 1/4 cup of mix to a mug of hot water (medium size on my Keurig). It is so yummy!  It is chocolaty and creamy.  I think Miss V is going to love it!

Sharing this on Sweet as Sugar Cookies, Sweets for Saturday #1

Hot Chocolate Recipe