Homemade, Dairy-Free Hot Cocoa Recipe

We have been trying to cut back on animal-based foods (more on that in a later post), so I am experimenting with some new recipes that will allow us to enjoy comfort foods without the use of animal-based ingredients.

Over the weekend, it was really cold with all of the snow on the ground, so the girls and I decided to hibernate in the house, watch Christmas movies all day and make some hot cocoa.

I didn't want to use milk for the reason mentioned above, plus the fact that Kaylee is having strong reactions to dairy (just like Zoë did at this age), so I made our hot cocoa with almond milk.

Here is my recipe for dairy-free hot cocoa:

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup filtered water
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (we used Ghiradelli)
• 1/2 cup organic unrefined sugar
• 1 pinch pure sea salt
• 3-4 cups almond milk
•  1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

Directions

1. Start boiling the water in a saucepan.
2. Combine the cocoa, sugar and sea salt and mix into boiling water.
3. Once the mixture starts to come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer and stir for about 2 minutes (make sure it doesn't scorch).
4. Stir in 3-4 cups of almond milk (depending upon how rich you want it).
5. Once it's getting pretty warm, add the organic vanilla.
6. Continue to stir and heat until the mixture is very hot – but don't bring it to a boil
7. Remove from heat and pour into mugs.
8. You can add a little almond milk to the mixture if you need to cool it down quickly for eager little ones (like mine).