Low Sugar Hot Chocolate Mix (+ Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate)
At this time of year, sometimes it seems like nothing but hot chocolate will do. I am fortunate that my kids have yet to have more than a few sips of super sugary hot chocolate outside the house, so they are more than happy with a cup of hot milk mixed with cacao/cocoa powder and cinnamon. For them, at least for now, that is sweet enough.
But I have tasted the delicious sweet treat that is a 30-40g added sugar hot chocolate. And while they taste far too sugary to me these days, I do like to have something in between the kids’ unsweetened stuff and the coffee shops crazy stuff on hand. It’s nice to have in our house for the times my husband and I want a cup as is, but also as a base to be able to offer to guests and sweeten to taste for those more accustomed to the coffee shop varieties or instant powders.
Plus, a hot chocolate mix can make a really great homemade Christmas gift (especially when combined with a few of my sugar free marshmallows or a couple of low sugar gingerbread men).
So I’ve been trying for a while to come up with a version I like. I’ve tried various combinations of cacao vs cocoa powder, xylitol vs sugar (using less) vs stevia or erythritol, cornflour (cornstarch) vs none, milk (or milk powder) vs non-dairy… I’ve poured cups down the sink after one sip, and downed others but not been 100% convinced. Until I came across an idea in one of my favourite French cookbooks, La Petite Epicerie du Fait-Maison, which suggested blitzing actual chocolate up with sugar and cornflour. I twisted and tweaked the recipe until I was completely happy with it, and realised I’d found what I’d been missing.
I love my winter spice hot chocolate, indulgent hot chocolate, gingerbread hot chocolate and peppermint hot chocolate. But this is just that much quicker – I make one batch and can make a dozen cups of hot chocolate in just a minute. I like to keep the sugar or sweetener low in the mix and allow people to adjust to taste. This not only helps us be more aware of how much sugar we are having, but also helps our tastebuds get used to richer, less overly sweet flavours.
And if you want an extra fun way to make it sweeter and more decadent, go for the salted caramel hot chocolate option in the recipe- it is super sweet and very very yummy!
Make one batch of this in a blender in 30 seconds and you can have instant hot chocolate on hand that contains only a tiny fraction of the sugar of a regular cup of hot chocolate. Dairy and gluten free, vegan, low sugar and delicious. A great homemade Christmas gift.
- 100 g (3.5 oz) 85-90% dark chocolate
- 10 g (1 tablespoon) cacao or cocoa powder
- 10 g (1 tablespoon) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoons icing (powdered) sugar or powdered xylitol*
- pinch of sea salt
- salted butter, double (heavy) cream (or oat/coconut cream) and xylitol for salted caramel, optional
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Blitz all of the ingredients in a high speed blender or powerful food processor until it makes one uniform powder. To make one serving of hot chocolate, heat 1 cup of milk (dairy or non-dairy) in a pan or in the microwave until piping hot and stir through 1 heaped tablespoon of the hot chocolate mix until mixed in and the dark chocolate shavings have melted. For extra indulgence, swap half the milk for cream (dairy or coconut/oat).
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For salted caramel hot chocolate: Make my salted butterscotch/toffee sauce from this recipe by heating butter with xylitol gently (stirring constantly) until bubbling and browning, then take off the heat and pour in (heavy/double) dairy, coconut or oat cream and returning to the heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Add 2-3 teaspoons to a cup and pour over the hot chocolate made from the mix as above, stirring to combine and serving hot.
*I do this in a coffee grinder, or you can get powdered erythritol/stevia blend by buying Natvia's icing mix here - not a fan of stevia but don't want to grind it yourself? Try just plain old powdered erythritol like this one.
**To give as a gift, pour the blended mix into a small jar and decorate with ribbons or Christmas stickers/material, along with a label with instructions on how to make it. A nice addition is a small jar of the salted caramel sauce (needs to be refrigerated after a few hours) or a few sugar free marshmallows.
