Healthier Hot Chocolate
By Kathy Hester
You don’t usually think of hot chocolate as being good for you. If you look at the ingredients of most packaged cocoas, there are things that you won’t recognize. Some even have partially hydrogenated fat and artificial creamer as the base. But if you make your own from scratch you can control exactly what goes in it.
Cut out some calories and keep all the flavor by using unsweetened vanilla almond milk as your base. It has less calories than skim milk, and the vanilla flavor is perfect in cocoa. Feel free to use you favorite milk if it comes from a cow, a soybean, or rice. They all work perfect.
Picking out the cocoa itself can be difficult with all the choices that are available now. Be sure to look for a Fair trade organic cocoa if you can find it. Chocolate labeled as as Fair Trade insures that the farmers earn a descent amount for their crops and unfortunately, if it doesn’t say Fair Trade the farmers probably didn’t get much for it.
Why worry about it? Well, some countries use child and even slave labor. Children and other workers can be forced to work long hours and most of the child workers don’t get the opportunity to attend school. Many workers don’t have equipment like gloves to protect them from the dangers of applying pesticides and fertilizers. By buying Fair Trade products, you’re choosing to pay a little more to support your fellow human beings. Dagoba, Equal Exchange, Divine, and Theo are just a few companies that buy Fair Trade chocolate.
Once you find cocoa that you like, pick out what you will sweeten the hot chocolate with. You can use the usual granulated sugar or try something a little different like agave nectar or stevia. You can even leave the sweetener out and let each guest put their favorite one in. My favorite way to sweeten mine is with some Frangelico.
If you’re serving a ton of people, go ahead and make up a slow cooker of hot chocolate ahead of time. If you keep it on low the milk won’t scorch and you can have it any time during the night. You can also make some in a little dipper if it’s just 2 or 3 of you. Serve it up in some colorful sengWare mugs to add an extra special touch.
Don’t forget to try some adventurous variations, too. Throw in some cinnamon stick, whole cloves, and even a few whole pepper corns and your house will smell like the holidays. You can also add a little vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to bring out the chocolate flavor and sweetness even more.
