Hot chocolate, or hot cocoa is my choice of beverage on a cold winter day. Even though I live in Los Angeles, it has gotten cold here in the last few weeks! My craving for hot chocolate started to kick in. I also had a lot of left over raw vegan coconut whipped cream from last week’s recipe post, so I went in the kitchen and whipped up my version of hot chocolate. Well, raw vegan hot chocolate! It was quite tasty and warm too. Just because it’s raw vegan, doesn’t mean you can’t warm it up. It just needs to be under 118℉ which is surprisingly quite toasty. Definitely enough to warm up a chilled body.
For hot chocolate, the obvious choice to use is raw cacao powder, but I also like using raw carob powder with it. If you aren’t familiar with carob, it’s powdered carob bean from the carob tree. Carob has been used for 4000 years as a natural remedy for diarrhea. In modern days, it’s commonly used as a chocolate substitute because of its chocolate like taste. Being caffeine free, it also makes a great chocolate substitute if one is avoiding caffeine.
Carob is quite nutritious as it’s packed with antioxidants, fiber, and minerals. When combined with the cacao, it makes this hot chocolate rich in antioxidants and minerals, plus it’s loaded with vitamin E from the almond milk. Tasty and good for you, just the way I like everything.
I like using carob with the recipe because by mixing a little bit of carob with the cacao, it mellows out the cacao’s dark chocolate taste to more of a milk chocolate flavor. You can skip the carob powder if you don’t have it and the flavor will just end up tasting more like hot dark chocolate. Something I have no problem with as I love dark chocolate too!
Most of the carob powder you find in stores are roasted and not raw, but Sun Warrior has one and Amazon carries many. Here’s the link.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=raw+carob+powder
Making the raw vegan hot chocolate is super easy. Add the almond milk, cacao powder, carob powder (you can skip it if you don’t have it), maple syrup, coconut oil, and salt into a blender. After that you just warm it up. Here’s my recipe for homemade almond milk.
Pour out the hot chocolate mixture into a sauce pan or a small pot. Warm it up on the lowest flame until the temperature rises to about 110°F (42°C), while stirring constantly to avoid hot spots. Check the temperature with a cooking thermometer often to ensure it doesn’t go over 118°F (48°C), making it no longer “raw”. Once the hot chocolate hits the temperature, remove from the flame and serve immediately before it cools off.
Enjoy as is, or top it off with coconut whipped cream or raw vegan coconut whipped cream. You can also garnish it with some shaved raw chocolate to make it pretty. Oh boy, this looks too good. I’m going to go whip some more up for myself right now.
- 3 cups almond milk
- 2 Tablespoons cacao powder
- 1¼ teaspoons carob powder
- 1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons + ½ teaspoon maple syrup
- A pinch of salt
- Some coconut whipped cream or raw vegan coconut whipped cream for topping (optional)
- Some shaved raw chocolate or cacao powder for garnish (optional)
- Add the almond milk, cacao powder, carob powder (you can skip it if you don't have it), maple syrup, coconut oil, and salt into a blender and blend.
- Pour the hot chocolate mixture into a sauce pan or a small pot. Warm it on the lowest flame until the temperature rises to about 110°F (42°C), while stirring constantly to avoid hot spots. Check the temperature with a cooking thermometer often to ensure it doesn't go over 118°F (48°C), making it no longer "raw".
- Once the hot chocolate hits the temperature, remove from the flame. Top it with some coconut whipped cream or raw vegan coconut whipped cream, and sprinkle some shaved raw chocolate or cacao powder on top. Serve immediately.
[…] days and drinking it is still very sentimental for me. Except now, I love to sip on my warm raw vegan hot chocolate. So now when the weather changes, I reach for the chocolate! The other day, I was enjoying my hot […]