Recipe of the week: Homemade Salted Caramel Mocha

I'm a fan of most things sweet and salty.  Dark chocolate covered pretzels, dark chocolate with sea salt, salted caramel hot chocolate, fleur de sel caramel, kettle corn...you get the picture.  I'm sure it goes back to going to the drive in when I was a kid and having popcorn and Milk-duds.  My tastes are a little more sophisticated now, I mostly eat dark chocolate, the darker the better.

I don't go out for coffee very often but when I do I like the salted caramel mocha from Starbucks, I don't however like the calories or how much sugar is in it (47 grams in a tall!), even if you only do 1 pump of each flavor it's still a lot of sugar.  I've made this several times, without the coffee, you've salted caramel hot cocoa, which my girls love.  This is for one serving, when I'm making more I just double or triple everything.  Start out with a little bit of sugar and salt and adjust to your taste, you might like it saltier or sweeter.  Sometimes instead of adding more sugar I'll use some stevia once I've poured in the coffee.  You don't have to use sugar, you could use maple syrup or agave.  You can also use your choice of milk, I've made it with 2% and I've made it with almond milk, both were delicious.  Let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!

Salted Caramel Mocha

1/2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 tsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
dash of salt
coffee

Brew your coffee as you normally would.  In a sauce pan melt butter, add vanilla, stir with a whisk and add sugar.  Once combined add milk and dash of salt.  Add cocoa and whisk until completely combined, taste and adjust salt and sugar.  Pour into mug, add coffee and enjoy!