Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

Utah captured my heart this Spring. Spring in Utah is a funny thing-- not really spring, March in the desert is more like half winter and half summer.  

When the morning wakes you, you’ll find your sleeping bag pulled as high around your head as it can go, covering your cheeks and leaving just enough space so to breath. Eventually, motivated by the thought of coffee, or tea, or anything warm, you'll peek out, and see the snow, still coming down in oversized flakes that fall impossibly slow. Lighting that two-burner camping stove will never sound so good.  

Outside, there is a different view in every direction, but all of them will make you feel small — just a tiny human, standing on a slice of something far too large to imagine. Cliffs, a deep crimson color, tower above. They sit gallantly on piles of sand, like the earth's version of sandcastles, displaying layer on layer of dirt. Each layer seems to expose something about the world, every band of sand marking an era of the past. At their feet grow short and twisted juniper trees, struggling to grow.  

When the water boils, and you pull it from the stove, the pot will spout a tower of steam into the air above, melting the snow as it falls. When you turn around, you’ll see a mountain range all Coloradans know well, crisp and white, capped with ice. They look bigger from Utah, surrounded by flat plains, deep rifts, and the occasional rock spire. You’ll know what I mean when you see it for yourself: it’s as if those mountains scrape the clouds off of the sky, catching them on their peaks and hanging on.  

The snow will eventually stop (it’s spring, after all), and the unshielded sun will melt every white patch away. The desert sand will suck up any moisture that remains, and by 10 the ground will be dry again, as if nothing happened. That's when you’ll sit back in a folding chair, a rich mug of homemade hot chocolate in hand.  

There is nothing to feel other than awe. Belittled by the jagged, barren canyons and cliffs on one side, humbled by the majestic peaks to the other. Small-- small and awestruck. 

Here is a beverage to drink on those chilly mornings at camp, or around the campfire in the evening — Double chocolate Hot Cocoa. It’s made with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder (that’s the “double” part). Dehydrated milk adds creaminess, so even when you’re out exploring you don’t have to remember the milk! Though, if you are are really prepared, top your mug with a dollop of whipped  cream or marshmallows, and consider a splash of whiskey. Sitting around the campfire has never been so sweet!

Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

Published March 27, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 8   |    Active Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

1-3 tablespoons coconut sugar (depending on how sweet you would like your cocoa — 1 for not very sweet, 3 for more sweet)

Pinch salt

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup dehydrated non-fat milk powder

To make cocoa: 8 ounces of water; and whipped cream or marshmallows for serving

Directions:

1. Place coconut sugar, salt, and chocolate in blender or food processor and pulse until a fine powder is formed.
2. Add cocoa powder and milk powder, and pulse blender again, just until everything is incorporated.
3. Store cocoa mix in a air-tight jar.
4. To make cocoa: Bring 8 ounces of water to a boil. Whisk 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa mix with the water until dissolved. (To get the froth shown in the images, use a hand-held milk aerator). Pour cocoa into mug, and top with whipped cream or marshmallows as desired.

Crustless Spinach, Artichoke & Aged Cheddar Quiche

Update: This recipe has new photos as of 3/22/2019. Same recipe! :)

I am making a resolution right now, today. Will you join me? I'm resolving to have brunch more often. 

I recently looked at my calendar and realized a year ago, some of my closest friends had come over for a spring brunch and I had actually said, "We should do this every season. Like spring brunch, summer brunch-picnic, fall brunch, and winter brunch." They all nodded in agreement, delirious on mimosas, coffee, or maybe just morning air. It was settled. We were going to brunch more.

That was a year ago, and now I'm looking back thinking, what happened?? Brunch slipped through my fingers, as I got caught up in life and forgot the glory that is late morning. The smell of freshly brewed coffee? A plate full of quiche? Morning light trickling through a big window? All of these things make my heart sing. So this is my ode to brunch, and my resolution to brunch more: Spinach, Artichoke & Aged Cheddar Crustless Quiche.

Maybe with it written down, I'll actually make it happen. Will you brunch with me? For you, for your mornings? Just think of the late morning sun. 

Crustless Spinach, Artichoke & Aged Cheddar Quiche

Published February 15, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 60 minutes

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Ingredients:

9 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup aged white cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 pound frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 can artichoke hearts, strained

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon coconut oil

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a pie pan, or line one with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Chopped artichoke hearts. Place artichokes and spinach in a mesh sieve and press the excess water out as best you can. This will help the quiche set. Place strained spinach and artichokes in a bowl.
3. Now, heat the coconut oil over medium heat in a skillet and sauté the diced onion and minced garlic until the onion is translucent. Use a spatula to scrape onions and garlic into bowl with spinach. Stir mixture until onion is well distributed, then sprinkle the mixture into the pie pan, in an even layer.
4. Next, sprinkle the cheese mixture in the pie pan in an even layer.
5. Whisk the eggs and milk until frothy. Add a sprinkle of salt and a few cracks of pepper. Pour mixture over filling in pie pan, ensuring there is egg mixture filling all spaces.
6. Place in middle wrack of oven and bake until golden and puffy, about 45 minutes. Center should be set and there should be no runny eggs. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Grain-Free Gingerbread Men

Holidays were sweet at my Mom's house--between the occasional sweet bread and a few biscotti, there was always a pile of sugar cookies, which we would decorate one by one with softly colored icing and plenty of sprinkles. 

Prompted by the holiday carols on the radio and the snow outside, I've been thinking about holiday cookies a lot lately. Is there anything sweeter than an afternoon inside, decorating cookies while humming little songs? 

These cookies are crispy and snappy. They're full of warm gingerbread spices, which makes them perfect for dipping in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Best of all, they'll fill any craving for holiday sweets or cookie decorating afternoons. 

While there are a lot of frosting recipes out there, and quite few recipes for Paleo Royal Icing, I actually just decorated these with straight coconut butter. It's simple, it's easy, and it's super creamy. Coconut butter on a spoon? Yuum! Coconut butter on a cookie? Double yum! Personally, I find the cookies sweet enough. If you want to decorate these cookies with something more traditional, go for it! To be totally honest: plenty of these cookies were eaten before they finished cooling down, which means they never got frosted at all! Oops. 

One last totally honest tidbit: one year I dressed up as a gingerbread man for Halloween. My parents had to talk me out of eating my candy buttons before the 31st. I couldn't have been any older than 5, what could you expect? #EmbarrassingMoments. 

Grain-Free Gingerbread Men

Paleo, Primal, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Thin and crispy, these gingerbread men have all of the snap of the traditional cookie.

Yields: 24   |    Total Time: 30 active minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, plus extra for rolling out cookies
• Pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut butter

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine the dry ingredients (flour, arrowroot, baking soda, salt, spices, sugar).
2. When dry ingredients are well combined, add the butter/coconut oil to the food processor. Pulse several times, until butter is incorporated but not fully mixed in. Add the egg, and then continue to pulse until dough comes together into a sticky ball.
3. Remove dough from food processor. Roll into a ball and then flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
4. When ready to bake cookies, preheat over to 350°F. Cut two pieces of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. Sprinkle one piece with arrowroot powder. Take dough out of the fridge, and unwrap. Place dough on piece of parchment paper, and sprinkle with more arrowroot powder — just a small amount, it keeps the dough from sticking too much. Place the second piece of parchment on top, and then use a rolling pin to roll dough out to a 1/4 of an inch thick. Peel off top parchment paper carefully. Now, using cookie cutters, cut cookie shapes about 1/2 inch apart from each other. I use the reverse cookie-cutting method to make my cookies, because this dough is fragile: Use cookie cutters, and then remove the excess bits (i.e., don’t try to move the cookies them selves) from the parchment. Then, transfer entire sheet of parchment paper to cookie sheet and bake until cookies are puffy and golden — 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Repeat this process until the dough has been used!
5. Once cookies are completely cool, melt the coconut butter. Spoon melted coconut butter into a frosting bag fitted with a fine frosting tip, and decorate cookies as desired.

Note: as coconut butter melts in warmed temperatures (around 76°F degrees, you may need to keep decorated cookies in the fridge. This will depend on how warm you keep your house (mine is much lower than 76°F, so I keep them on my counter top in an airtight container.