Heavenly Hot Chocolate
What better way to stave off the winter chills than a nice big mug of hot chocolate? This rich and creamy hot chocolate is high in both fat and protein. The key to its decadence? A blender. Blending fat and liquid together creates a rich creaminess and smooth mouthfeel. Using keto chocolate chips, which often contain additional emulsifiers and stabilizers, can create an especially rich result. However, do be aware that extended blending may eventually result in something nearing a pudding in thickness. For those who prefer not to use chocolate chips, a version with cacao butter is also provided. Both versions can be made with hot plant-based milk, or, if you happen to have a blender with a soup function, you can take advantage of that option. Made as per the recipe, this hot chocolate is quite chocolately and not overly sweet. Feel free to add additional sweetener to suit your tastes. And, if you're more of a milk chocolate than dark chocolate person, you may wish to reduce the amount of cacao powder in the recipe. Hope this hot chocolate brings some warmth to your wintery day. Happy sipping.
Yield: 1 large hot chocolate of about 1½ cups (360ml)
Macros (chocolate chip): 270 calories | 12g protein | 19g fat | 5.5g net carbs ✎
Macros (cacao butter): 270 calories | 13g protein | 22g fat | 5g net carbs
Prep: 5 to 10 minutes
Equipment required: a heat-safe blender (not bullet-style ✎)
Storage: keep hot in an insulated cup, or keep for a few hours and reheat in the microwave when ready to drink.
Macros (chocolate chip): 270 calories | 12g protein | 19g fat | 5.5g net carbs ✎
Macros (cacao butter): 270 calories | 13g protein | 22g fat | 5g net carbs
Prep: 5 to 10 minutes
Equipment required: a heat-safe blender (not bullet-style ✎)
Storage: keep hot in an insulated cup, or keep for a few hours and reheat in the microwave when ready to drink.
Version 1 Ingredients:
Version 2 Ingredients:
- 1¼ cup (300ml) hot unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
- 3 tablespoons (45g) vegan keto-friendly dark chocolate chips (e.g. ChocZero)
- 2 teaspoons (3.5g) unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder
- a light sprinkle of salt (optional)
Version 2 Ingredients:
- 1¼ cup (300ml) hot unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
- ½ ounce (14g) cacao butter ✎
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon (13g) unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder
- 1½ tablespoons (19g) allulose or equivalent in preferred keto-friendly sweetener
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
- a light sprinkle of salt (optional)
Directions:
- Put all ingredients in a heat-safe blender and blend until the chocolate chips or cacao butter is fully melted and the mixture is rich and creamy. ✎
- Enjoy hot. Note that the hot chocolate may thicken as it cools.
Make It Mexican: add ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch (half of a ⅛ teaspoon) cayenne pepper (or more to taste).
✎ Notes:
- Macros will vary with the type/brand of chocolate chips used. I'm using ChocZero.
- Most of the protein in this hot chocolate comes from the high-protein milk. 1¼ cup (300ml) soy or pea milk tends to have roughly 10g protein. Using a low/no-protein milk will reduce the protein substantially. Also, beware of high carb plant-based milks such as oat. Check your labels.
- You can use hot milk (heated in the microwave or stovetop) or, if you're blender has a soup function, you can use unheated milk and blend the ingredients with the soup function on your blender.
- Be aware that with extended blending, you may find that the chocolate chip version becomes quite thick due to the other thickening and stabalizing ingredients often found in keto-friendly chocolate chips. I have only made this with ChocZero chips and so I'm not sure how other chips (e.g. Lily's) will respond to extended blending.
- Please do not blend hot ingredients in a bullet-style blender. At best, you will not be able to get the lid/blade component off. At worst, it will explode and damage you and/or other people/pets and your kitchen.
- For the cacao butter I usually buy (Sunfood), this is equal to 5½ buttons. Melted, this would be about 1 tablespoon (15ml). You could also replace the cacao butter with an equal amount of coconut oil, vegan butter (omit the sprinkle of salt), or a neutral or nutty oil of choice.
- Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the chocolate chips (ChocZero).
- Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.