i love hot cocoa and i drink it year round. i'm not a coffee person (although i've tried to be at times as i explained here.) hot cocoa especially shines during the fall and winter and i got inspired to try my version with peanut butter after i pinned a recipe for it on pinterest. but instead of trying that recipe--i just dove head first into creating my own. mainly, because i wanted a version that was not so decadent--something i could have a couple or three times a week if i wanted.
here's my simple concoction:
~peanut butter hot cocoa~
2 c. milk (i use 1%)
3 tbls. cocoa powder
1 tbls. natural peanut butter
1 rounded tsp. vanilla sugar*
3 tsp. fine, raw sugar
*i brought back vanilla sugar from germany--if you don't have any add a few drops of vanilla extract and one extra rounded tsp. of raw sugar.
place all ingredients into blender and mix until peanut butter is incorporated well. use a rubber spatula to scrape down any cocoa powder that stuck to edges, pulse a couple more times. pour mixture into saucepan and heat until hot, stirring frequently.
this makes enough to almost fill three, 8oz cups.
the honest truth: this is not a knock-your-socks-off-i'm-in-heaven recipe. in fact, when noah drank his first cup his response was, "this is wierd". but he drank the whole cup. it's not real sweet and because i used 1% milk it's not very rich. but this was my plan from the start--something a little on the healthier side. i find it quite comforting in it's own lack-luster way. you can of course up the ante by using a higher fat milk and adding more sugar. there is tons of flexability here to suit your taste. what we often do is add a splash of half and half to each cup before serving if we want that lovely 'cream' taste.
one bonus of whipping it all up in the blender first is that you get a luscious foam going, and this is especially desirable for my hot cocoa tastebuds.
