WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA from Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries

Today I welcome back mystery author, coffee maven, and baker Cleo Coyle. I love when my mystery and chocolate worlds collide. Here's a fabulous recipe from Cleo for White Chocolate Mocha. Perfect for the holidays!

CLEO COYLE:
White Chocolate Mocha from Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries 

This heavenly drink is a winter favorite at many American coffeehouses—so, of course, we put it on the menu of our beloved fictional Village Blend. Perfect for a snowy night, it tastes like a rich, warm, coffee-infused milkshake. Marc and I originally shared this recipe several years ago with readers of our Coffeehouse Mystery Holiday Grind. Today we’re delighted to share it here on Janet’s wonderful blog.

For those of you who are new to our work, my husband and I write two mystery series for Penguin Random House. Our long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries, set in New York’s Greenwich Village, revolves around the life of coffeehouse manager cum amateur sleuth Clare Cosi, a single mom with single-minded determination to help the people in her community, even when it means assisting the NYPD in tracking down perpetrators of perplexing crimes.

When Clare isn’t mothering her staff of quirky baristas or dealing with her elegant (and slightly eccentric) octogenarian employer, she’s coming up with tasty recipes like this one for her landmark shop. We hope you enjoy it—along with Clare’s latest case, Shot in the Dark, a Library Journal Mystery Pick of the Month and national bestseller.

Watch for our 18th Coffeehouse Mystery, releasing next year in hardcover from Penguin Random House.

Cleo Coyle’s White Chocolate Mocha

To download this recipe in a free PDF, click here.  

Makes one serving

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup good quality white chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1–2 shots (1/4 cup) hot espresso or double-strength coffee*
Whipped cream (optional)
White chocolate curls**

Step 1: Combine milk and white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan about one-third full of boiling water. (The water level should be under the bowl and not touching it.) Stir constantly until chocolate is melted.

Step 2: Whip in the vanilla using a whisk, hand blender, or electric mixer. Continue to whip about a minute until the warm mixture is loosely frothy.

Step 3: Pour the espresso into a large mug. Add the steamed white chocolate milk and stir to blend the flavors. You can top with whipped cream and white chocolate shavings, but it’s just as delicious without.

*Note on coffee: For double-strength coffee, simply make a strong version of your regular cup. For instance, in a drip coffee maker, instead of using 1½ to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water, use 3 to 4 tablespoons.

**Note on curls: To create chocolate curls, start with a block of room temperature chocolate. Using a vegetable peeler, scrape the block and you'll see curls of chocolate peel away. Happy holidays, everyone!

--Cleo 

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries. Alice and Marc are also authors of popular adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction, as well as media tie-in writers, who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, including the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, which was recently honored with a “Best Book of 2018” selection by Suspense Magazine. To learn more about their books and see more of their recipes, visit them online at www.CoffeehouseMystery.com