October snow means it's time for gluten-free hot cocoa

It's snowy here in the Philly suburbs.  It's October and it's snowing.  Ugh.  But the good news is that a snowy day makes for a great excuse to have gluten-free hot chocolate!

To make my GF hot cocoa, all I need are four ingredients:

* Hershey's natural unsweetened cocoa powder
* Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Vanilla almond milk
* Sugar
* Sea salt

I kind of ignore the hot cocoa recipe on the side of the Hershey's container.  I'm notoriously crap at following recipes--I'm too lazy and/or creative.  When it comes to recipes, I'm usually like, "Meh, this looks like a cup of [whatever it is I'm adding to the mix]" (as I throw in a heaping amount of it) or "This recipe would be sooooo much better if I added [some sort of bizarre ingredient like gummy worms that would never sound like a good idea to anyone else but me]."

The one thing I do follow from the Hershey's recipe is using 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder.  If I use any more than that, I've found that the bottom of my hot cocoa is clumpy, chocolately sludge.  Ew.  So this is one instance where I actually follow the recipe, and by "follow" I mean "actually use a measuring cup to make sure I'm using the right amount."

So I dump the 1/4 cup of cocoa powder in the bottom of my mug.  I then add 2-3 packets of sugar, and then some delicious, good-for-you vanilla almond milk.  Using almond milk instead of hot water and milk makes the cocoa very rich and decadent.  I stir this mixture and then microwave it for 60 seconds.  It comes out with some clumps and chocolate bubbles on the top, so I stir it again, getting rid of the clumps and bubbles.  Once it's smooth, I taste it.  If it tastes good, I add a little bit of sea salt, stir it in, and then microwave the cocoa again, but this time for only 10 seconds or so (any longer than that and it can taste a bit scorched).  And then--voila!  Rich, indulgent, and gluten-free hot chocolate.  It's the perfect complement to the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies my awesome mom made for me!

To anyone else reading this while looking outside at this strange October snow, I hope you're staying warm, staying safe, and enjoying a comforting gluten-free drink and/or snack!