If you're feeling a little fancy, I recommend making your own chocolate milk mix from cacao nibs. The extra step makes for a truly indulgent mug!
Premade chocolate milk from the store with its sky high processed sugar and questionable ingredients is less than ideal. The powdered and liquid mixes used to make your own at home ain't much better! We ditched them a long time ago, because they gave me a stomach ache, and we figured out it's a lot cheaper to make it yourself and have control over the ingredients.
I have a basic hot chocolate mix already from years ago, but wanted to share this "bumped up" one for you. Coconut sugar is reminiscent of brown sugar, which adds those caramelly notes too.
Serve a glass or mug with some honey cut out cookies or even egg-free cookie bars. Making everything from scratch really makes your average snack time feel special. Plus, basically all cookies and this drink mix can be made ahead (freeze your cookies!) so this is no different than simply meal planning and prepping your kitchen for good eats.
Key Ingredients
Chocolate - Obviously you can't make chocolate milk without chocolate! I'll explain in further detail below, but you can start with cacao nibs or use cocoa powder.
Sugar - Making your treats sweet isn't evil. We are meant to enjoy these things! I love to use coconut sugar for the flavour it adds, but organic cane sugar works just as well.
Cinnamon - Optional, but it really amps up the flavour!
Salt - Truly, if you aren't using salt in your sweets you are missing out. Much like cookies would taste "off" without the balance of salt, so would this chocolate drink mix.
I recommend storing in a mason jar with tight lid, to keep out any moisture. You can also portion it out to smaller, pretty jars and give as gifts. Just include a tag with instructions! Pair it with a jar of homemade vanilla extract and some cookies.
How to Make Dairy Free Chocolate Milk Mix
***See recipe card below for precise measurements and instructions.***
Step 1: If using cacao nibs, blend/process into a powder. Break up any clumps and dry it out in the oven.
Step 2: Once dried and cooled, add the cacao to a bowl.
Step 3: Stir in remaining ingredients until the mix is truly homogenous.
Step 4: Next up - make your cold chocolate milk or pull out a pot to make mugs of hot cocoa!
Tips and Tricks
- If using cacao, and it is clumping when ground, that means you need to dehydrate it some. Moisture is what will spoil your mix!
- Feel free to mix up your amounts of cocoa/cacao to find a mix that fits your tastebuds.
- Some great serving options are cinnamon, chili powder, fresh mint leaves, or even a candy cane.
If it's holiday or celebration time, maybe mix up some raw egg nog as well. I won't tell if you spike your own mug of cocoa with homemade bailey's. A rooibos chai concentrate is another great DIY drink to keep on hand.
FAQs
Making your own chocolate milk mix means you can know exactly what you are putting in there - and by starting with cacao or cocoa powder, it is naturally dairy free. This way you can easily add to any milk alternative you like to make a mug of dairy-free hot chocolate.
I love coconut sugar here. It has a toasted or caramel taste to it, which really elevates your glass. If you don't have any you can also use organic cane sugar, or a mix of the two to get your full amount.
Use about 1 ½ tablespoons for each cup of milk. This will allow you to easily multiply up to make it for a crowd, such as 6 tablespoons per litre/quart.
This is a personal choice - the closer to the original plant ingredient you get, the less processed it is. Cocoa powder is still just cacao, just processed more. I'm absolutely fine with cocoa powder and if I don't have cacao at that point I don't stress. But I find that cocoa powder can be a bit bland in comparison, and I wanted this to be a pure chocolatey treat! So use the nibs at least once to see what difference in taste there is and decide for yourself. There's no wrong answer!
Photos by Dante from Shire by the Sea
More Drink Recipes
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Healthy Chocolate Milk Mix
Ingredients
Chocolate Option 1:
- 150 grams cacao beans/nibs
- 50 grams organic cocoa powder
Chocolate Option 2:
- 100 grams organic cocoa powder
Other Ingredients:
- 2 cups coconut sugar or organic cane sugar/combo of both
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon optional
Instructions
Drink Mix:
- If using cacao beans/nibs, blend them up into as fine a powder as you can. If the blender stops blending before it’s a powder this usually happens when the beans have some moisture. It will tend to clump. If this happens use a spatula to get the mix that sticks to the side off and blend again.
- Scoop grounds out of the blender and put on a tray and spread out. Set oven at 140-170°F and dry out powdered cacao for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool.
- Mix all ingredients (one chocolate option plus remaining ingredients) well together in a large bowl until uniform
Chocolate Milk:
- Add 3 tablespoons of mix to 500 ml milk/cream (roughly 2 cups) and stir rigorously. Use an immersion blender or blender for best results
Hot Chocolate:
- Heat 1 litre of milk/cream (about a quart) in a pot constantly stirring constantly until desired temperature. If you like your cocoa hot be careful not to let milk burn. This melds better together warmed than with cold milk obviously.
- Add 6 tablespoons of mix and stir thoroughly. Keep heat simmering and stir for another 5-15 minutes.
Notes
- Makes about 3 ½ cups of mix, with 1 ½ tablespoons being roughly one serving per cup of milk.
- You can also often find cacao powder at the store - you could always try 50 grams of cacao powder with 50 grams cocoa powder.
- This is very potent chocolate flavour, especially if you are using cacao and you haven't tried it before!
- I recommend whipped cream, cinnamon, peppermint extract, even chili powder to dress up your glass or mug.
- Nutrition information is for mix only, using all cocoa powder.
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