Hazelnut Chai Mocha

Most people think mixing tea and coffee would be disastrous. I'm pretty sure this drink proves all the critics wrong. The rich, spicy chai and bitter coffee blend beautifully in this hazelnut chai mocha! If you are lover of coffee AND tea then this is a must-try!

Hazelnut Chai Mocha

1 mug of coffee (about 1 cup)
2 cups of milk
2 T sugar
1 1/2 T cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
2 T hazelnut chai tea
whipped cream (homemade or store bought)
hazelnut chocolate the shave on top (optional)

 (I used Argo Hazelnut Chai Tea. This tea isn't available online but you can buy other amazing chai teas here: http://mychaidiaries.com )

1) Brew a mug of coffee

2) Heat the coffee and milk in a sauce pan until it steams 

(medium heat)

3) Measure out the chai into a tea infuser

 4) Mix in the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and salt. Stir until these ingredients dissolve.

5) Put the tea infuser (containing the tea) into the sauce pan. Let it steep in the milk for about five minutes. Strain the mocha mixture into cups/mugs. 

6) Add whipped cream and shave the chocolate on top

Blackberry Mocha Cheesecake

Yesterday I created this blackberry mocha cheesecake for my brother's birthday. It turned out to be probably one of the best cakes I have ever made! I followed a basic cheesecake recipe and changed quite a few things. Also, I made the bottom of the cheesecake gluten-free!

Blackberry Mocha Cheesecake Recipe

Cheesecake Crust

1 1/2 cup nuts (I used a mix of walnuts and pecans)
1 cup sugar
5 Tablespoons butter (soft)

1) Blend nuts in food processor or blender until finely ground
2) Add the sugar and butter and blend until completely mixed
3) Press mixture into the bottom of a springform pan
4) Bake crust for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees
5) Take out of the oven and allow it to cool

Cheesecake Filling

32 oz cream cheese (at room temp.)
1/4 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 stick of butter (4 oz)
4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz of milk chocolate
6 oz of coffee chocolate (I bought a bar that was coffee flavored white chocolate. You could just add expresso as well.)
4 oz of heavy cream (1/4 cup)
2 oz of sour cream

1) Mix the cream cheese with the sugar. Add the eggs, heavy cream, and sour cream
2) Melt the butter and then set aside
3) Melt all the chocolate in a double boiler (careful not to burn!)
4) Add butter and chocolate to cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth
5) Pour filling over the cheesecake crust in the springform pan
6) Bake cake at 270 degrees for 90 minutes. Turn off oven, open the stove door, and let cake sit in oven for 30 minutes
7) Take cake out of the oven and let it completely cool

Blackberry Mousse 

1/2 Tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
10 oz of frozen blackberries
3/4 Tablespoon of sugar (you can kinda estimate)
3 oz white chocolate finely chopped
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
A spoonful of blackberry jam (optional)

1) Combine the gelatin powder and water in a small bowl and set aside (allow it to bloom)
2) Defrost and strain the blackberries to get all the juice
3) Pour the blackberry juice into a sauce pan and add the sugar
4) Over low heat, stir the juice and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved
5) Continue to stir juice over low heat for 4 minutes (allow the juice to become more concentrated)
6) Remove saucepan from heat. Add the bloomed gelatin to the juice and stir until dissolved
7)Add the finely chop chocolate and stir until smooth
8) Set mixture aside and beat the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form (make whipped cream!)
9) Gently fold the chocolate blackberry juice into the whipped cream
10) Pour mousse onto the cooled cheesecake
11) Swirl blackberry jam onto the top of the mousse (to make it look pretty!)

Now you simply put your cheesecake into the fridge to completely cool. It turns out best if left over night.

Once you remove the cake from the fridge, drizzle some chocolate on top and add some fresh blackberries.

Enjoy!

Mocha Pomegranate Mousse

One of the desserts I made for Thanksgiving was this lovely Mocha Pomegranate Mousse! It turned out   very pretty and flavorful so I decided to share my recipe. If you aren't a huge pomegranate lover, no worries! You can easily substitute the pomegranate with almost any other fruit/ flavor. For example, you could try this recipe using raspberries, blackberries, lemon, peach, peppermint, or even eggnog! 

Mocha Pomegranate Mousse Recipe

Mocha Mousse Layer

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream 

4 ounces milk chocolate

4 ounces coffee chocolate

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

3 tablespoons water 

2 tablespoons sugar

3 egg yolks, room temperature

1) Melt all the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside to cool

2) Crack three eggs and separate the yolks into a bowl. Set aside

3) Put the water and sugar in a small sauce pan. Stir on medium heat until it starts to bubble and become like syrup

4) Add the simple syrup (while still hot) to the egg yolks while constantly stirring 

5) Add the syrup and yolks to the chocolate and mix all together

6) Whip the heavy cream until peaks form

7) Carefully fold all the chocolate into cream until mixed together 

8) Pipe or spoon the mousse into cups/bowls and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes 

Pomegranate Mousse Layer

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 tablespoon sugar
6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream 

1) Put the water and gelatin in a bowl and set aside (allow gelatin to bloom)

2) Put the pomegranate juice and sugar in a small sauce pan and stir on medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the juice becomes more concentrated (once the juice starts to bubble, continue to stir on heat for around 5 minutes). 

3) Put the bloomed gelatin in the pomegranate juice and stir

4) mix the chopped white chocolate into the pomegranate juice. The hot juice should melt the chocolate

5) Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. 

6) fold the pomegranate juice into the whipped cream

7) Pipe/spoon the pomegranate mousse onto the chilled mocha mousse

8) Put the mousse back into the fridge for at least and hour

Before Serving

1/2 cup of fresh pomegranate seeds

1/4 cup of chopped/shaved white chocolate 

1) Sprinkle the seeds and chocolate onto the cups of mousse right before serving 

Peanut Butter Caramel Mocha

For one person:

about 2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of coffee (or more if you'd like!) 
2 Tablespoons of sugar 
1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon of caramel
1 Tablespoon of peanut butter (you can kinda guess with this and add more or less) 
1/2 Tablespoon of vanilla
pinch of salt

Put the milk in a pot on medium heat. stir until hot. add the rest of the ingredients, stirring in each before adding the next. once all the ingredients are added, make sure you stir some more for a few minutes. then enjoy! 

Dulce De Leche Frappuccino

Dulce De Leche Frap

1/2 cup of coffee 

3/4 cup of milk

3 Tablespoons dulce de leche

1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

When your coffee is still hot, add half of the sugar and mix it in. Then put your coffee in the fridge to cool. When it is cold, put all the ingredients in a blender. Add a few handfuls of ice before you blend. You can add as much ice as you want, depending on how thick you want it. To make it even better, you can make coffee ice cubes ahead of time. After blending, pour into glasses and enjoy. This makes enough for about 2 people. 

Iced Mocha Punch

After making this iced mocha punch today, I'm already excited to make it again. It's the perfect drink for parties on hot days and coffee lovers are bound to enjoy it!

Iced Mocha Punch

9 cups of milk

5 cups of coffee

1 cup of sugar

6 heaping Tablespoons of cocoa powder

2 or 3 Tablespoons of vanilla

a pinch of salt

1) Heat up the milk, 3/4 cup sugar, the cocoa powder, the salt, and the vanilla in a large pot on the stove

2) Stir on medium heat until everything is dissolved in the milk

3) Pour most of the milk mixture (it should be just like hot chocolate) into a pitcher and stick in the fridge

4) Pour the rest of the milk mixture into an ice cube tray and stick it in the freezer

5) Make 5 cups of hot coffee and stir in 1/4 cup of sugar (the rest of the sugar) until it dissolves in the coffee

6) Pour most of the coffee into a pitcher and stick it in the fridge

7) Pour the rest of the coffee into 1 or 2 ice cube trays and stick them in the freezer

8) Let everything chill/freeze overnight

9) Pour the chilled milk mixture, the chilled coffee, and the ice cubes into the punch bowl and stir well

10) Enjoy! 

Oh, and I like to top mine off with some whipped cream!

Raspberry Mocha Frappuccino

So how did I make such an elaborate drink with only a kitchen full of ingredients and my imagination to guide me? It all started with a really bad ice cream craving. For almost 3 whole years, when I was younger, I would order the exact same thing from any ice cream parlor we entered. If they had it, I would routinely order coffee and dark chocolate ice cream with fresh raspberries mixed in. I decided that I wanted to take this favorite and turn it into a drink. A fancy drink. After an hour or two of being a total mad scientist in the kitchen, I created this lovely concoction. This drink makes me wish I had a time machine so I could go back and drink it again. And again. And again. 

Are you up to the challenge of making it? Trust me, it's worth it. 

Raspberry Mocha Frappuccino 

Step 1) To start off, you are going to need to make my Simple Iced Coffee. You will need to do this either the day before or a few hours before you plan to enjoy your frappe. 

Step 2) Time to make Raspberry Chocolate Cream

1 cup of frozen raspberries

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons raspberry balsamic vinegar (optional, but definitely adds flavor and is highly recommend)

3 cups of milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1. Put the frozen raspberries in a glass bowl and microwave until thawed

2. Strain the raspberry juice into a sauce pan (just throw away the left over seeds)

3. Add the sugar and vinaigrette to the raspberry juice

4. Stir on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it becomes like a syrup

5. Stir in the milk, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder

6. Continue to stir on medium heat until mixture becomes just like raspberry hot chocolate

7. Pour most of the hot mixture into a pitcher and stick in the fridge to cool

8. Pour the rest of the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze (about 15 cubes)

 Step 3) Now to make the Raspberry Chocolate Syrup

1 cup of frozen raspberries

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons raspberry balsamic vinegar 

25 gram bar of DARK chocolate (The darker the richer! I used 85% dark)

1. Put the frozen raspberries in a glass bowl and microwave until thawed

2. Strain the raspberry juice from the seeds into a sauce pan

3. Add the sugar and raspberry vinegar to the raspberry juice

4. Stir on medium heat until the sugar dissolved and it becomes like a syrup

5. Add the bar of chocolate and stir until it melts 

6. Leave the chocolate syrup out on the counter to use later 

Step 4) Once the coffee is cooled, the raspberry chocolate cream is cooled, and the ice cubes are frozen, you may begin the Raspberry Chocolate Whipped Cream

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon  sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 big Tablespoon of the raspberry chocolate syrup

1. Put all the ingredients into a mixer and mix on highest setting until the cream becomes just like whipped cream. 

Step 5) Here's the very last step! Excited? Since you can't really make 7 frappuccinos all at once in one blender, I'll tell you how much to put in for just 1 or 2 frappes at a time. 

1. Pour a little less than 1/2 a cup of the Raspberry Chocolate Cream into the blender

2. Pour 1/4 cup of chilled coffee into the blender

3. Put 3 raspberry chocolate cream ice cubes and 3 coffee ice cubes in the blender

4. Put a spoonful of Raspberry Chocolate Syrup into the blender

5. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream (This is optional. It just makes it creamier) 

6. Blend away until mixture is smooth and creamy

7. Pour into glasses and spoon a generous amount of Raspberry Chocolate Whipped Cream on top. 

8. Drizzle the Raspberry Chocolate Syrup onto the top (Warning: if you're as generous as I am, you may run out quickly) 

Your masterpiece is now complete! Sit down and enjoy your frappe. I hope you feel fancy. 

Chocolate Chai Tea

Chocolate Chai Tea (for 2)

3 cups of milk (I used almond milk) 

1 1/2 Tablespoons of vanilla 

2 Tablespoons of sugar 

2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

Pinch of salt 

2 chai tea bags

1) Mix all the ingredients (except tea bags) together in a pot on the stove (medium heat) 

2) Once the mixture is hot, pour into a tea pot and add the chai tea bags 

3) Let the tea bags seep for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

Iced Nutella Mocha

Here's my Iced Nutella Mocha Recipe 

1 1/2 cups iced coffee
2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 spoonful Nutella
1 to 2 handfuls of ice (depending on how icy you want it!)
1 or two scoops of ice cream (Optional)

1) To start off make coffee ice cubes with 1/2 cup of your coffee (this is optional)

2) Combine the milk, vanilla, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan. Stir on medium heat until mixture is hot and everything is dissolved in. Let cool and then place in the fridge. (if you're in a hurry, place it in the freezer for a bit to make it chill faster)

3) Once everything is chilled, put the coffee, milk mixture, ice cubes, and Nutella in a blender (leave out coffee ice cubes). Pulse until everything is mixed. If you decided to add ice cream, then pulse this in with everything else. Before you enjoy your mocha, add your coffee ice cubes to keep your drink nice and cool.
                             (This should make enough for about 2 or 3 people.)

Caramel Apple Latte

I've been wanting to create this delicious drink ever since the idea entered my mind 2 weeks ago. I've made it one of my goals to create a fancy drink once a month with the teas I receive (from my tea reviewing job). This latte turned out amazing and is now one of my favorite fall drinks! 

For this latte, I used tea. The tea gave my latte the spicy, caramel apple flavor. I used NecessiTeas Caramel Dipped Apple Tea. You can purchase this tea here: http://www.thenecessiteas.com

You could also use any other caramel apple (or just apple) tea you find in a grocery store or other tea company. 

Caramel Apple Latte Recipe

(1 serving) 

Without Coffee                                                                     With Coffee

1/2 Tablespoon sugar                                                           1/2 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract                                                     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small spoonful of caramel                                                 1 small spoonful of caramel

1 cup milk (a mug-full)                                                        3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoon Caramel Dipped Apple Tea                     1/4 cup coffee

                                                                                            1 1/2 teaspoon Caramel Dipped Apple Tea

1) Put your tea leaves into a tea steeper and set aside

2) Put the sugar, vanilla, and caramel into a small sauce pan. Add the milk (or milk & coffee) and put on medium heat. Stir until the sugar and caramel have melted and completely mixed into the milk. Stir the milk fast to create bubbles on top (like a latte!) 

3) Put the tea into the milk mixture and let it steep for a few minutes

4) Pour latte into a mug and drizzle caramel on top

5) Enjoy!