This recipe can now be found on my new blog, Kitchen Treaty – the direct link is below. It is no longer available on The Hazel Bloom.

I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, but I do hope you come on over to see Kitchen Treaty. It’s a food blog (and my new labor of love!) with easy vegetarian recipes so delicious you won’t miss the meat, flexible one dish two ways recipes with optional meat add-ins for the carnivores, universally-loved drinks and cocktails, scrumptious desserts, and lots more.

• Continue on to Green Smoothies with Spinach and Blueberries
• Read more about the change

Warm, cozy, chocolatey, minty spoilers.

This yummy homemade candy cane hot cocoa mix makes the perfect gift for everyone on your “nice” list. Dark chocolate adds depth, crushed candy canes give it a minty twist and the white chocolate rounds it all out. It comes together incredibly quickly with the help of a food processor. Then just fill a few plain pint-size mason jars, dress ‘em up with a label, screw a circle of festive fabric onto the lid, and make friends and family happy and cozy.

Gift a jar with a big bundle of candy canes and maybe even a bottle of peppermint schnapps or Bailey’s Irish cream. ‘Tis the season!

Here’s the recipe.

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A few people have asked about the labels I used. I sort of cobbled them together. I started with the top left image from this great blank cards template from the wonderful joyeverafter.com. I then created my own custom label using that border in Photoshop, along with the Outlaw font,  then printed them on plain Avery 2” H x 4” W labels and cut them out with scissors.Voila!

Honestly, if I’d been thinking farther ahead, I probably would have bought a batch of these from Paper Source and printed on them – much easier.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Candy Cane Hot Cocoa Mix

Makes enough for about seven pint-size mason jars (about 14-15 cups total)

Ingredients:

• 5 cups Dutch process cocoa powder
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 (3.5-ounce) dark chocolate bars (I use Lindt 90% cacao midnight dark chocolate)
• 4 (3.5 ounce) white chocolate bars (I used Lindt white chocolate bars)
• 15-20 candy canes

Directions:

1. Put the chocolate bars in the freezer for about 10 minutes. This will help you grind them in the food processor without the chocolate melting.
2. In a very large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch, and kosher salt.
3. Break the dark chocolate and white chocolate bars into the food processor and pulse until the chocolate is ground into small crumb-size bits. Add to the cocoa powder mixture.
4. Break the candy canes into pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse until they are ground. Add to the cocoa powder mixture and chocolate.
5. Stir everything together, then add to the food processor in batches and grind until the mixture is a fine powder consistency.
6. Add to mason jars and gift away!
7. Two heaping tablespoons cocoa mix to one cup (8 ounces) warm milk is just perfect. Use a candy cane as a stir stick.

More goodies like this:

• Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
• Christmas Gifts for the Baker in Your Life
• Double Chocolate Salted Peanut Bark
• Pine Bark
• Secret Kiss Cookies

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately. Because of that, the kitchen here in The Hazel Bloom household has been taking a break, and the house has been without projects.

It’s been a weird month. But for the most part, things are on the upswing. So brace yourself, kitchen! Because fall is here, and I’m ready to break out the apples and the pumpkin, like it or not!

Here are just a few of my very favorite recipes for this time of year. Happy Autumn!

Pumpkin, Pun’kins

I’m pumped for pumpkin season. Because I’m going to whip up things like this:

Pumpkin French Toast with Orange Honey Butter

Thick slices of french bread dipped in a pumpkin-and-spice laced batter, browned, and topped decadently. The orange in the butter especially complements the pumpkin. Love.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

My go-to quick bread recipe this time of year.

Pumpkin Curry Soup

Love, love love this cozy, flavorful soup. Pumpkin and curry were MFEO (you know, made for each other).

Pumpkin Ginger Mini Cheesecakes with Dark Chocolate

These little cheesecakes are so easy to whip up using your standard-sized muffin tins. And it’s fun to make little dark chocolate shapes to display on top (they taste great, of course, too).

Kettle Corn Style Pumpkin Seeds

After cooking all those pumpkin recipes, you’ve got tons of seeds! Put ‘em to use. I love this version of roasted pumpkin seeds. Salty-sweet and oh-so addicting.

How ‘Bout Them Apples?

In a couple of weeks, the trees will be changing, and boxes of fresh-picked Eastern Washington apples will be calling to me from the other side of the mountains. It’s just about time to make my annual pilgrimage on over the Cascades to find perfect apple bliss. Here are four favorite recipes for getting your apple on.

Spiced Apple Cider, Crock Pot Style

Mmmm. Nothing gives your home that cozy fall feel like the aroma of spiced apple cider that’s been brewing all afternoon.

Apple Dutch Baby

One of my all-time favorite breakfasts. A puffy oven pancake topped with sauteed apples… heaven.

Apple Pie Muffins

Ooooh, I love these guys. Nice, tender muffin with a topping reminiscent of pie crust. Yum.

Sour Cream Apple Waffles

I guess I’m especially about apples for breakfast. But they’re perfect at breakfast time, no? These sour cream apple waffles are easy and divine. I actually think I want some right now. Laters!

I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, but I do hope you come on over to see Kitchen Treaty. It’s a food blog (and my new labor of love!) with easy vegetarian recipes so delicious you won’t miss the meat, flexible one dish two ways recipes with optional meat add-ins for the carnivores, universally-loved drinks and cocktails, scrumptious desserts, and lots more.

• Continue on to Ginger lemongrass iced green tea
• Read more about the change

About March-ish every year, I get my first iced coffee of the year from Starbucks. It’s usually a sunny day, I may even be braving some sock-less shoes, and I’m feeling the spring fever. My toes and the rest of me are usually freezing by mid-morning, but I’m still practically giddy because, woo hoo! It’s officially Iced Coffee Season!

Not only does Iced Coffee Season mean summer is coming, it also mean that for the next few months, this coffee drinker is going to be drinking copious amounts of iced coffee. Hey, what can I say. I’m all for straightforward, clear, and downright obvious when it comes to naming my seasons.

After spending far too much at the ‘bucks on iced coffee over the years, I finally figured out how to make it at home.

I have a three personal rules for making iced coffee. Because if you just pour some brewed coffee over some ice cubes (yes, I started out trying that), you’ll be disappointed. And might possibly want to throw up.

But when I follow my rules, I end up with a perfect cuppa icy joe:

1. Start with very strong coffee.
2. Cool the coffee first.
3. And, my favorite rule: Use ice cubes made of coffee, so you don’t dilute the brew.

The coffee ice cubes are key.

Ready to cool down and caff up with me? Here’s the recipe:

Iced Coffee

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups very strong coffee
• Coffee ice cubes
• Half and half to taste
• Sugar to taste

Directions:

1. One day ahead, make the coffee ice cubes. Allow coffee to cool, then pour into ice cube trays. Freeze.
2. Brew coffee, then pour into a large Pyrex measuring cup or other container that’s safe for hot beverages. Allow to cool a bit, then place in the refrigerator until it’s cooled off.
3. Add coffee ice cubes to a tall glass.
4. Pour cooled coffee over the top, leaving a little room for half and half if desired.
5. Stir in some sugar (I usually add just a spoonful). You can add this in step 2 so that it’s perfectly dissolves, but personally I like to add it to taste per glass.
6. Stir in half and half to taste. And enjoy!

P.S. Please do not feed to dogs, no matter how much they beg.

I know I’m a dork. I own it, for the most part. Sometimes I think it would be cooler to be, well, cool – but then I look in the mirror or hear the words coming out of my mouth and I laugh at myself. I am what I am. May as well embrace it.

But enough about me. How about America, and freedom, and liberty, and justice for all? And how about celebrating the day of independence with a tasty, dorkily themed beverage like Fourth of July Sangria?

That’s right, my friends. We’ve got a nice refreshing white sangria with star fruit. And strawberries and blueberries and wine and deliciousness and good times. So how about getting dorky with me for your very own Fourth of July celebration? Jump on in to the uncool pool with me. The water is, actually, pretty fine.

Fourth of July Sangria

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle dry white wine (I use pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc would probably work nicely as well)
• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
• 3/4 cup blueberries
• 1 medium star fruit, sliced
• 15 maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup pomegranate schnapps
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Club soda

Directions:

1. Add the strawberries, blueberries, star fruit, and cherries to a pitcher.
2. Pour in the wine and the pomegranate schnapps.
3. Gently stir in the sugar.
4. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours – or, preferably, overnight.
5. To serve, fill a glass about 2/3 of the way full with ice cubes. Pour the sangria in about 2/3 full, and add a few pieces of the fruit. Top off with club soda.

Now I have two mugs of coffee to drink. Maybe this will actually be a good thing.

I'm sure my fogginess on this particular morning has nothing to do with drinking this delicious Rummy Lemonade last night.

 

This easy cocktail is a refreshing antidote for a hot summer day. It's great as a crisp, simple punch for a party, too. Just slice up a couple of lemons, throw in a few peppermint leaves, and add the punch to a beverage jar (like this one we received as a wedding present from Crate and Barrel and can't wait to use!). Easy peasy.

About the peppermint "swizzle sticks" – just pick a big tall peppermint stem, strip off the bottom leaves, and stick it in your drink for a tasty swizzle stick that doubles as a garnish. Neat, right? (Notice the purplish color of my peppermint. This seems to be the variety of peppermint that's happiest in its new yard. I kind of dig it, no pun intended.)

Here's the recipe! Me, I'm off to do the coffee thing two-fisted this morning.

Rummy Lemonade

Adapted from Bobby Flay's Rum Lemonade recipe on Food Network

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups lemonade (Store-bought or homemade. I did store-bought. Don't tell!)
• 2/3 cups light rum
• 15 or so mint leaves, plus a couple of stems for the peppermint swizzle sticks

Directions:

1. Stir together the lemonade, rum, and mint leaves.
2. Pour into two large glasses filled with ice.
3. Strip all but the uppermost leaves off of two stems of peppermint.
4. Give it a good stir, then add the peppermint swizzle sticks and a straw.
5. Enjoy!

As a part of the Hunger Challenge this week, I included smoothies for a couple of breakfasts. Partially because the organic frozen berries I bought weren’t the cheapest in town, they’ve been a little pricier than some other items on our menus. But they’re such a terrific, fairly complete, and fast breakfast on the go, that I fit ‘em in.

Yum!

We’ve been making Banana Berry Smoothies this week, but just about any fruit will do ya.

Here’s my formula for a perfect smoothie.

Perfect Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 3 ounces (or 1/2 a container) of vanilla yogurt
• The juice of one to two oranges (one orange for thicker, two oranges for a little thinner)
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen fruit (we’ve been using raspberries and blueberries, but you can throw in whatever you want. Mangos and strawberries are awesome, for instance. Just cut a bunch up and freeze!)
• 3 – 4 ice cubes (not necessary, but I like ‘em)

Directions:

This is VERY LABOR INTENSIVE. Are you ready?

1. Dump everything in the blender
2. Blend until it’s smooth.
3. Pour in a cup.
4. Drink.

Okay, I exaggerated a little. 

Oh, and feel free to add some wheat germ or some flaxseed if you really want to amp it up. Me… I’ve decided I’m not terribly fond of the added texture. It ruins some of the milkshake-like ambiance, know what I mean? But seriously, if you can be less of a baby than me, go for it!

I've yet to try the most classic iteration, with bitters and a sugar cube, but you can bet your strawberry I'll be trying it soon. Once I figure out what bitters are.

Meanwhile, I've got a cranberry lime version for you. Red and green for Christmas Eve! So perfect I can hardly stand it. Oh, totally unrelated, speaking of hardly being able to stand something, you've got to check out these Candy Cane Christmas Tree Cupcakes over on Bakerella's blog. So cute I'm pretty sure I just plain can't stand it. 

Okay, okay, tear yourself away from Bakerella's fabulous blog and come back to me, will you? We've got some drinking to do!

Here's the recipe:

Cranberry-Lime Champagne Cocktail

Serves 1

Adapted from Tyler Florence's Cranberry Champagne Cocktail recipe on foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

• Champagne (we like the Riondo Prosecco we picked up for a mere $10 at Costco)
• 1 oz. cranberry juice (the sweetened kind)
• 1 lime wedge + one very thin half lime slice
• 2-3 frozen cranberries

Instructions:

1. Pour cranberry juice into a chilled champagne flute.
2. Squeeze the lime wedge into the glass.
3. Fill with champagne.
4. Float the cranberries and the thin lime slice on top.
5. Enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy!

You know how, sometimes, you screw up a recipe, but it’s too late to turn back? And so you hope that this is one of those rare times you’ve stumbled upon either something completely new that no one has ever thought of and it’s simply amazing, or at the very least you made something really really good even better?

Yes, of course I do this all the time. And of course, usually what I end up with is muck. Like the time I used baking soda instead of baking powder in a pancake recipe and they were dis. gus. ting. Except, actually, now that I think about it, I didn’t realize what I’d done to screw it up until after I’d left an embarrassingly bad review on Recipezaar. “I don’t know why everyone’s raving about these! I’m sorry, but these pancakes are so gross!” Whoops.

This Hot Buttered Rum recipe, also based on a Recipezaar discovery, suffered from a miscalculation on my part and as a result, two to three times the recommended spices.

Yummy, as it turned out!

Here’s the recipe. This stuff is perfect to keep in the freezer for surprise holiday stop-ins, or a special drink anytime. We like Captain Morgan’s spiced rum in ours. And now that I’ve written about it, I think I’ll have to go downstairs after this is done and fix a couple of ‘em up (we’ve got it in the freezer!)

Hot Buttered Rum Batter

Adapted from this Very Rich Hot Buttered Rum recipe from ArtWork on Recipezaar.com

Serves… oh lord, I have no idea. Let’s just say this recipe makes a ton of batter. Probably 25 drinks’ worth, maybe more.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart vanilla ice cream at room temperature
• 1 pound brown sugar
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1 pound (four sticks) butter (either salted or unsalted works), very soft (at room temperature)
• 5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together. I just throw it all in my Kitchenaid stand mixer and let it have at it.
2. For the drink, place three tablespoons of batter into a mug, and add a shot of rum.
3. Pour hot water over the batter and rum.
4. Stir well.
5. Shake a little nutmeg on top.
6. Enjoy!
7. Store in the freezer – it’ll keep for a month or more.

More goodies like this:

• Rummy Lemonade with Peppermint Swizzle Sticks
• Blender Mojitos
• Spiced Pumpkin Buttermilk Waffles with Cinnamon-Honey Butter
• Hot Buttered Rum Bread Pudding Muffins
• Cranberry-Lime Champagne Cocktail