Who doesn’t love to warm up to a nice cup of hot chocolate on a cold night? I know I would drink it a lot more if the store-bought stuff wasn’t loaded with sugar and artificial ingredients! This is why I set out to figure out ways to make hot chocolate healthier but just as tasty, if not even more delicious.
My goal was to use ingredients readily available, no sugar, no instant powders, and no artificial ingredients or flavors. The first two recipes are quite simple and are a good base, but then I threw in the last recipe in case you are wanting to get a bit creative and wild in the kitchen. Plus, the last recipe shows how you can take the first two recipes and spice them up a bit. Speaking of spice, you could try making a spicy hot chocolate or even just throw some cinnamon on top to kick up the spice in a different way!
3 Ways to Make Hot Chocolate Healthier
Dairy-Free Healthy Hot Chocolate
Serves 1
ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 TBS raw cacao powder
- 1 TBS pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
instructions
- Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan over high heat.
- Stir until smooth.
- Keep on the stove until the desired temperature, while continuing to stir to prevent burning.
Chocolate Chip Healthy Hot Chocolate
Serves 1
ingredients
- The recipe above plus the below ingredients
- 1 TBS chopped dark chocolate chips
instructions
- Follow the instructions from above. Once all mixed, add chocolate chips and stir until melted.
Keto Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
Serves 2
ingredients
salted caramel
- 4 TBS salted grass-fed butter
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup cooking stevia
- 1 tsp pink Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
hot chocolate
- 2 TBS of salted caramel sauce
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
- 12 ounces coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 ounces baker’s chocolate
instructions
salted caramel
- In a pan, melt butter over medium heat.
- Move butter around every so often until it browns– about 5-7 minutes.
- Once the butter is browned, lower the heat to medium, add the heavy whipping cream and stir to combine.
- Then add the stevia and salt. Stir until melted and combined.
- Leave the mixture alone for about 10 minutes to thicken.
- Stir in vanilla and then turn off the heat.
- Transfer to a container.
- This will keep for a week.
hot chocolate
- Prepare salted caramel first.
- In a saucepan, add the coconut milk and heavy whipping cream over medium-low heat.
- Stir continuously until it warms up.
- Add in the baker’s chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and warmed.
- Then add in the salted caramel sauce.
- Keep stirring continuously to keep the mixture from burning.
- Then add in your vanilla extract and salt. If the mixture starts to get too thick, you can add water to help thin it out.
- To reach your desired sweetness, try adding in more salted caramel or liquid stevia.
- Pour into mugs, top with whipped cream, drizzle with salted caramel sauce, and maybe even a little sprinkle of some pink Himalayan salt.
Please note that the salted caramel hot chocolate is for people on the keto diet as it is pretty high in calories and designed to be a treat for those on the keto diet.
