Dairy Free Frozen Mocha Hot Chocolate

MyRealFoodLife.com

Frozen Mocha Hot Chocolate (Dairy Free)

NOTE: if you want to do this one for the kids and take out the coffee, you can replace it with 2 chai tea bags, or just keep it out altogether.  A touch of almond extract may be nice to even out the chocolate, about 1/4 tsp in case munchkins may not be fans of almond.

Ingredients

• 2 cups water (or your choice of non-dairy milk)
• 1/2 cup honey (Vegan: 2/3 cup agave nectar, 1/2 cup maple syrup, or 1/2 cup yacon syrup Anti-Candida: stevia and coconut sugar to taste)
• 5 tbsp instant coffee, or two shots of espresso, or  2 cups of coffee in place of the water above.
• 5 tbsp cocoa powder- get the higher fat, dark powder for the best chocolate flavour
• 2 cups vanilla almond milk (Nut free: use vanilla hemp milk, or non dairy nut free milk plus 2-3 tsp vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla bean)
• pinch salt
• 1 can full fat coconut milk (hey! Its dessert. Indulgence is allowed!) (Nut free: use 1 1/2 cups non-dairy nut free milk plus 1/2 tsp gelatin powder or 1/2 tsp agar agar powder)
• 1 bag of ice cubes

Optional flavourings you might want to try (SEPARATELY!! not together! lol) :

• 1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (nut free: try maple or peppermin extract)
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• orange zest

Directions

1. Before you get started, a note-  this is very strong tasting when warm.  However, freezing sweets has the effect of making them taste less sweet, and chocolate taste less strong.  Since you’ll be blending this recipe with equal parts ice,  you’ll need the chocolate part to have a strong flavour before hand.  It does mellow out with the blending.
2. Heat the 2 cups of water or non-dairy milk listed at the top of the recipe here, on medium heat.  Add in the honey  and stir till fully melted.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients, and wisk well so that the cocoa doesn’t make any lumps.  If you’ve used the gelatin or agar agar substitutions, then use a blender or hand blender to remove any lumps. Add in any of the flavourings you choose, and let simmer on low heat for about 10 min to let the flavours infuse.
4. Cool.
5. Fill a glass with ice, and then pour the chocolate mix over it.  You can either drink it like this ( its a bit stronger this way), or you can put the mixture in a blender and blend till super smooth and slushy… yum…