Nothing is more comforting and yummy to me in the winter than hot chocolate. It reminds me of coming in after sledding all day and snuggling around the fire on our first floor, watching Christmas cartoons with with my little Auntie who lived with us, and sitting in ski lodges (all 6 times I skied!). ;)
There is a big difference between cAcAo and cOcOa. Plain and simple, cacao is the raw form of the cacao bean, whereas, cocoa is the cheap, more processed variety—which has been roasted, alkalized, molded into heated cakes, the cacao butter/oil pressed out, then powdered.
You can get cacao at any health food store, or find some great online sites where you can buy it raw, organic and in bulk.
Time to get cozy and give this recipe a try…
My Vegan, Superfood, Almost-Raw Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
- Unsweetened almond milk
- Raw organic Cacao powder (if you can only find nibs, make sure to grind them first in a coffee or spice grinder)
- Stevia
Instructions
- Heat the almond milk- either warm or really hot, depending on your taste. Add a 1 tsp. or less of cacao powder and sweeten to sweeten. Ahh. Sit back and enjoy!
I wish you well in your last minute food and gift preparations, but most importantly, I hope you enjoy this magical time for yourself, and with your family and loved ones.
Love,
Kimberly
I love raw cacao drinks! They really make you feel good!
I really want to be vegetarian but I am so far away…I like this opcion for hot chocolate!!!!
Hi Zenaida, Great!!
Oh yeah. Good point. :-)
I suppose it is counterintuitive to boil raw items. I was just using the old recipe and substituting ingredients. I will try mixing it. I think maybe if you just soaked the oats for a bit first that it would work. Good idea.
Yes, let me know how you do!! :) I’d love to try it when you report back how it went. :)
This looks amazing! A great alternative for something unhealthy and hard to give up!
OK Kim.
I took your suggestion and kept it raw and mixed it.
Consensus of self and friends – so much better!
Modifications:
*Replaced the Earth Balance with COCONUT OIL
*Mixed all ingredients except for oats (agave, hazlenut milk, vanilla, peanut butter, coconut oil) in a blender until completely smooth and free from coconut oil and peanut butter chunks.
Pour mixture into the oats and stir until all oats are covered.
Spoon batter onto wax paper lined pan and chill in the fridge.
Cut into squares once it has finally chilled.
Great!! See a little tweaking and it comes out even better. I will try out one day! Thanks for sharing. I don’t usually use oats so maybe I could use a ground nut of sorts. :)
Glad you tried not cooking it!
Hey, I see what appears to be the rudiments of an amazing raw oat bar recipe: nut milk, vanilla, peanut butter, coconut oil, stir in oats, refrigerate. Nowhere do I see quantities, could you add those? If not, I will experiment. Also, I believe peanuts are roasted before making peanut butter. If you have a really great blender you could substitute raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or cashews.
Yummy! I’m going to try the cocoa and cookies! I’m trying be be raw.. any recipe suggestions (websites or something)?
I really liked your blog! good
Kim,
I’m having fun getting recipes from your web site. Have been doing colonics and will continue till I’m whistle clean! Bob and I are mostly on the Hallelujah diet. I have grown sunflower sprouts and made rejuvanlac (sp). Haven’t made energy soup. I need to spice that up to make it taste worthy. Sounds like you never stop.
Ann and Bob Herrick
Hi, Kimberly! I just read your book and am starting in phase 1. You suggest using Almond Milk instead of dairy, but I have been using Coconut Milk instead. What are your thoughts on this?
I do this same thing, but with agave instead of stevia. ALSO: have you tried the new Almond Breeze coconut-almond milk blend? It is to die for. Perfect for baking and even better for hot chocolate.
Actually, Kimberly recommends stevia over agave. Agave is not all it’s been hyped to be. It is a highly refined sugar that is high in fructose(totally unhealthy). It’s like high fructose corn syrup…just call it high fructose agave syrup !
Hi Kimberly, trying really hard to make the right changes in my diet! One thing at a time. Really hard with a farm raised, country boy for a spouse! I’m not going to give up. What I’d like to know is, are all of ur recipes in your book?
Thanks
Kimberly,
What do you think about the Product CrioBru?
http://www.criobru.com/home/
I like my Hot chocolate with homade Hazelnutmilk and a some raw honey or coconut sugar
Thanks for mentioning the difference between cacao and cocoa. I previously didn’t pay attention to it, just thought that it might be a language difference only
Glad this post helped you out Nazish…took me some time too- to get a grasp on the differences. Sending lots of love! ;)