Post by Katie Mae Stanley, Contributing Writer
Steaming cups of chocolate goodness! Hot cocoa is a favorite treat of mine. It is the perfect way to warm up after playing in the snow. You never know what kind of cocoa we will be drinking at my house. Some days it will be a Mexican inspired hot cocoa, another day it will be peppermint, for a special treat raspberry but normally we just have it plain, which is delightful in its own right.
When I was growing up Friday nights were treat night, we could have a small bowl of ice cream or a mug of hot chocolate. Naturally we had the little instant packages of mix that you could add to hot water or milk. It was always thin and watery. For years I lived in the disillusionment that, that was how it was supposed to taste. As I moved into my teen years I always felt a bit guilty for adding two packs to one mug to make it taste right. When I first switched to eating real foods I left my hot chocolate packets behind. I didn’t want loads of sugar and powdered dairy in my body. At that point I was unaware of where I could find raw milk. Enter my search for coconut milk hot cocoa. What did I find? A recipe for coconut milk hot cocoa found right here at The Nourishing Gourmet which inspired me to create my first hot cocoa.
There are days when I want to cut out a few of the steps of making hot cocoa. Commercial mixes, even organic ones are out of the question. Instead I came of with my own mix. It has just three ingredients, sucanat, cocoa and chocolate chips. It takes no more than ten minutes to whip up a large batch of it. Next time you want hot cocoa, simply warm the milk of your choice and add two tablespoons of mix per cup of milk.
This makes the perfect easy gift this time of year. Add the mix to jars of your choice, decorate with a pretty ribbon or string and a sticker or two. If you have a bit of extra time on hand you could whip of a batch of honey sweetened marshmallows or peppermint marshmallows to add to the gift. Giving the cocoa mix with one of these whimsical owl mugs (affiliate links) would be so fun too!
Update: We’ve had a few requests for brand names to use for the chocolate chips. Here is my recommendations from the comment section! Here are a couple options: Enjoy Life Chocolate chips (affiliate links) are very allergy friendly, and so those who need chocolate chips made in a dedicated environment often choose them. They are great, though a little too sweet for me. Although cane sugar sweetened, my preference is to use really dark chocolate (we LOVE dark chocolate), as it contains much less sugar. A few fair trade brands that are also excellent quality dark chocolate: Scharffen Berger dark chocolate and Dagoba organic fair trade dark chocolate drops. With these two options, per serving, the amount of cane sugar is very low. However, for those who don’t want any cane sugar, there is one option that I LOVE made with coconut sugar. It’s Coconut Secrets’s dark chocolate bar. YUM! They do have it here on Amazon, but it has very expensive shipping. I checked Vitacost, but it looks like they only have the one with toasted coconut and milk added to it. So, I’d check any local high end/health food stores for them.
When gifting a jar of this hot cocoa mix add a note instructing them to add two tablespoons of mix to a cup of hot milk of choice.
- 2 cups sucanat, palm sugar or evaporated cane juice (One of the current best deals for coconut sugar is this one)
- 1 cup cocoa powder (I recommend fair trade)
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- Pour your sugar of choice and cocoa powder into a blender. Blend on high for 2-5 minutes until the sugar and cocoa are mixed well.
- Add the chocolate chips and blend for another minute or two until the chocolate chips have boken into small pieces about ¼ to ⅛ of the original size. (If you have a higher quality blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix check after 30 seconds to prevent your chocolate from melting.)
- Pour into a quart size glass jar or four ½ pint jars to give as gifts.
- If gifting a jar of this hot cocoa mix add a note instructing them to add two tablespoons of mix to a cup of hot milk of choice.
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this looks rocking, can’t wait to try it ladies!
I can’t wait to try it as well! I think this just might be one of the gifts I am giving this year. 🙂
I hope you enjoy it Tessa! I need to make up more jars. 🙂
Looks great Katie!!
Thanks Mare!
This is the perfect party favor for my Christmas party. How much of the “mix” do you need to add to milk (coconut milk? almond milk?) for a perfect cup of coco?
Cyn,
It looks like Katie recommends two tablespoons. 🙂
What kind of chocolate chips do you recommend?
Amy,
That’s a great question! Here are a couple options: Enjoy Life Chocolate chips (affiliate links) are very allergy friendly, and so those who need chocolate chips made in a dedicated environment often choose them. They are great, though a little sweet for me. Although cane sugar sweetened, my preference is to use really dark chocolate (we LOVE dark chocolate), as it contains much less sugar. A few Fair trade brands that are also excellent quality dark chocolate: Scharffen Berger dark chocolate and Dagoba organic fair trade dark chocolate drops. With these two options, per serving, the amount of cane sugar is very low. However, for those who don’t want any cane sugar, there is one option that I LOVE made with coconut sugar. It’s coconut secrets’s dark chocolate bar. YUM! They do have it here on Amazon, but it has very expensive shipping. I checked Vitacost, but it looks like they only have the one with toasted coconut added to it. So, I’d check any local high end/health food stores for them.
Target also carries the Dagoba dark chocolate chips:)
Good to know! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
What kind of chocolate chips do you use that don’t have an unhealthy type of sugar ?
I was thinking trader Joes might have something really good.
Pat,
I think that Trader Jo’s does have some yummy dark chocolate options! I updated my post (and also replied to Amy above) with some specific brand recommendations. 🙂
Was there to be a link?
>>>(One of the current best deals for coconut sugar is this one)
Oops! It got left, out, adding it now. 🙂 Thanks for pointing that out!
Oh, actually, it was there. Here you go again, though! http://amzn.to/1bdXbRd 🙂
I made some of this mix tonight. Next time, I will empty my blender before chopping up the chocolate chips. My blender started melting the chocolate before I could get them into little pieces.
Stephanie,
Oh dear! I wonder if different types of blenders work differently for a recipe like this one. What kind do you have?
Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that Stephanie. I’m wondering the same as Kimi; it could depend on your blender. I used an old Ostir blender in a relatively cold kitchen. If you have a newer or stronger blender like Vitmamix and Blendtec you might want to try only blending for a 30 seconds or less. My pieces were about a 1/4 to a 1/8 the size of the original chocolate chip.
I hope that help!
What if you added organic powdered milk to the mix? Making it so you just add to water?
You could do that if you wanted to, I try to avoid powdered milk because it isn’t the most healthy option.
Any other powdered milk alternative option? My daughter’s class has tea time, and they can bring in hot cocoa mix, but have to just add hot water to it. Would powdered coconut cream work?
Powdered coconut milk would work perfectly! One of these two recipes would fit the bill perfectly, they both use powdered coconut milk:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2017/01/instant-raspberry-hot-cocoa-mix-dairy-free.html
http://nourishingsimplicity.org/2014/12/instant-dairy-free-hot-cocoa-mix.html
Another option- Lilly’s has stevia-sweetened dark chocolate chips. We’ve been using those often these days. That’s what’s going in mine! (There’s also stevia-sweetened chocolate bars.)
Tami, those chips are NOT dairy free. Just letting you know.
I think the cocoa powder used makes a HUGE difference! We made it with regular Dutch cocoa, and then with black fair trade cocoa and the black cocoa had such a far superior, velvety, and rich taste as compared to the normal cocoa I buy!
Thank you x 3 for this recipe! I have a severe milk alergy and can’t find any cocoa mixes in the store. I tried this today and used Enjoy Life Allergy Friendly mini chocolate chips and half sugar half splenda. It was AMAZING!!!!!! Thanks so much!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you liked it!
Love it! I have had the SB powdered cocoa and blech. Wonder if I’d like the bar.
P.s. your coconut secret chocolate links are going to the dagoba product
Karrie,
Thanks for letting me know! Don’t know how that happened!
Has anyone ever tried this with cacao powder?
I’m sorry I missed this, it would work fine.