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Vegan hot cocoa topped with coconut whipped cream and a luxurious chocolate drizzle.
Vegan Hot Cocoa
A delicious treat during the winter season, hot cocoa is rich, sweet, and warms your soul. It's a comforting drink that is basically necessary during the stress of the holidays. Between hot cocoa & my friend Lisa's blog The Stress-Free Christmas we are bound to have a much more relaxing season.
Perhaps not surprisingly, hot cocoa is incredibly easy to make vegan. Cocoa is inherently vegan, so all you need to do is substitute your favorite non-dairy milk and make sure you're using vegan sugar.
Many brands process their sugar using bone char, but there are plenty of brands that don't. To make it simple, organic sugar is always vegan. So when in doubt, buy organic!
Hot cocoa is delicious on its own, but if you want to step it up and make it a decadent dessert, I love putting vegan whipped cream and chocolate syrup on mine (recipes for both below!) You might even be able to find vegan marshmallows - Trader Joe's carries some or you can buy vegan marshmallows on Amazon.
Vegan Whipped Cream Options
For homemade whipped cream, I recommend making it from a can of coconut cream. Here are the instructions for Whipped Coconut Cream.
There are also some really great store-bought options! Reddi Whip recently came out with TWO non-dairy whipped toppings in Almond and Coconut. They are both heavenly but I really love the coconut version. Another option is CocoWhip which can be found in the frozen section (this is harder for me to find, but Whole Foods usually carries it.)
How to Make a Vegan Hot Cocoa Mix
If you're a true hot chocolate lover, creating a mix will make things much easier. Hot cocoa mixes also make for great holiday gifts!
Add ¾ cup of organic sugar, ¾ cup of cocoa powder, and ½ teaspoon of salt to a mason jar. Whisk or shake until well combined. This mix will make 6 mugs of hot cocoa.
Write something like this on a label or tag: "For one serving, mix ¼ cup of mix with 1.5 cup almond milk. Heat until warm. Remove from heat. Stir in ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract." and secure it to the jar.
Vegan Hot Cocoa
Ingredients
Hot Cocoa
- 3 cup non-dairy milk choose your fav.
- ¼ cup organic sugar *
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Whipped Cream
Chocolate Syrup
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Instructions
Hot Chocolate
- Add all of the ingredients, EXCEPT, for the vanilla extract, to a pot. Turn the stove to medium heat, and warm up the mixture. Whisk while cooking - once the liquid heats up, the cocoa will mix in and dissolve.
- Don't boil - just heat up until hot and all of the ingredients are dissolved.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Top with some vegan whipped cream, drizzle with chocolate syrup and sprinkle some chocolate shavings on top.
Chocolate Syrup
- On the stove or in a microwave, warm up the maple syrup, then whisk in cocoa powder.
Lacey says
This is an excellent recipe, and have shared it with several family members who've enjoyed it as much as I have. My grandkids love it, too. Warm and soothing, not overly sweet and just the right amount of cocoa to make you smile! Thanks for sharing!