Chocolate Mug Cake

This dessert is for days when you want to have a dessert RIGHT NOW. It's also for days when it's way too hot to turn on the oven, like it was for us last week. The only not-so-quick part about the original recipe was that it called for coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor. We're tea drinkers here, not coffee drinkers, so we don't usually even have coffee beans in the house. Fortunately, I discovered a fast solution when I want to add a bit of coffee flavor to my chocolate dessert. The new Starbucks instant coffee called Via is 100% microground coffee without any corn products added, unlike most other instant coffees. So now, from start to finish, I can have my chocolate cake with a hint of coffee in just 15 minutes. If you are a coffee drinker and usually have some in the house, just use coffee instead of the water in the recipe and omit the instant coffee granules.

Chocolate Mug Cake
serves 2 adults

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. (or more) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips. The two kinds I use that do not contain milk fat are Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour
• 2 Tbsp. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa
  
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of sea salt
  
• 1/4 tsp. Starbucks Via Ready Brew instant coffee (optional -- or use 1/2 tsp. if you like a more pronounced coffee flavor)
• 3 1/2 Tbsp. light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. water (or coffee)
  
• 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn. Recently I have been using Rodelle Vanilla Flavor alcohol free all natural extract, which I found at Stop and Shop.

Instructions:

Take 2 mugs or 7-ounce ramekins and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips (or more if you would prefer) in the bottom of each. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, sea salt, and instant coffee. In a separate bowl combine the brown sugar, applesauce, water, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Divide the batter evenly into the two mugs. Place the mugs in the microwave and heat on high for 1 minute 10 seconds. Remove the mugs from the microwave and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.