The perfect sugar free hot chocolate recipe has eluded me, until now. I’ve tried many, many variations on low carb or sugar free hot cocoa, only to be left not in love. Which is so sad, because I’m a girl who LOVES her hot cocoa and hot chocolate!
Not to be deterred by multiple failures, I continued to test and tweak until I found a recipe that delights me. It’s the perfect blend of sweet, chocolaty, and has just the right feel and creaminess to it. I’m so delighted to have a new hot chocolate recipe that I can love, and that will love me back by not packing on the pounds.
Trim Healthy Mama category: Made as written, it’s a low cal (and can be dairy free!) treat. But you can always top it off with a generous swirl of whipped cream and call it an S treat.
Hope you enjoy! Here’s your printable and your pin:
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1-2 packets of sweetener of your choice (1 teaspoon of a stevia blend)
- ¼ teaspoon mct oil or ½ teaspoon butter
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- tiny pinch of salt
- ¼ teaspoon hydrolyzed gelatin, optional- for that silky texture
- Warm all ingredients, whisking to combine well. I will sometimes put it all in a pint jar and put the lid on and shake.
- For a decadent S treat, add up to 1 tablespoon of cream or half & half, or top with stevia sweetened whipped cream.
Laura Sauriol says
September 8, 2015 at 5:21 PMCan’t wait for the cooler weather to try this. Two questions. What is an “S” treat? and which gelatin did you use?
Thanks!
Gwen Brown says
September 8, 2015 at 8:43 PM“S” is short for “Satisfying”, and it’s lingo from the Trim Healthy Mama book, which you can read about here. 🙂 It means a snack with healthy fats for fuel. And I use the hydrolyzed (green can) gelatin for this one…I didn’t want it gelling up on me. 🙂
Marie says
November 16, 2015 at 9:12 PMThis was great, but I had to up the sweetener a lot. By ‘stevia blend’ do you mean something like Truvia? I used 1/2 teaspoon of (homemade) Truvia and it was undrinkable – maybe there is a typo? Added about 8 drops of liquid stevia and it was much better.
Marie says
November 16, 2015 at 9:14 PMPS. I love your food photography. 🙂
Ann says
December 29, 2015 at 1:56 AMIs hydrolyzed gelatin like thm “just gelatin” or “collagen”
Gwen Brown says
December 29, 2015 at 12:09 PMYes! They’re all the same product-just different names for it. 🙂
Ally says
January 28, 2016 at 8:36 PMI also love my hot cocoa, and I really don’t care for the flavor of almond milk so just adding cocoa and stevia and heating it up was not cutting it. I made this with the butter (and wow, I would not have thought of that!), a shake of powdered stevia extract and plain old unflavored Knox gelatin, and it was…better, the pinch of salt is truly necessary even with salted butter and the gelatin creates a lovely smooth texture (plus it’s quite filling!). But it’s still mostly almond milk, and almond milk is mostly water, and the taste is not deceptive of that fact. I added cream and it did help; my experience so far is that trying to make E/FP treats taste rich is a lost cause, and it’s better to just go with their natural lightness and make charming fruit desserts, frozen yogurt and muffins for those meals and leave the decadence to real cream and butter. I will try this again, though, and I think next time I’ll increase the cocoa and add some vanilla to round it out. If it’s going to be an S anyway, some dark chocolate grated into the heating almond milk could really deepen the flavor.
Gwen Brown says
January 30, 2016 at 2:36 AMI agree…I like the rich S, and I admit to using half & half in mine to make it creamier. 🙂 I love the melted chocolate idea! I’m toying with a mix with chocolate in it. 🙂
Angie says
May 11, 2016 at 1:37 AMGwen
You nailed it on this recipe! It’s my new go-to night time treat! Thanks for sharing it with us!!
stacy says
July 13, 2016 at 12:55 AMhow do you heat it up or do you add hot water
Gwen Brown says
July 22, 2016 at 11:37 PMYou can warm everything in a small saucepan or in the microwave. 🙂
Tina says
November 30, 2016 at 8:16 PMI love this so much. Been drinking it daily for the last week. 🙂
Gwen Brown says
December 5, 2016 at 3:52 AMAwesome, Tina! That makes my day. 🙂