When you want something chocolatey and satisfying, but there are minimal goodies in the house — or you’ve decided to give up sugar — this is the perfect comforter.
What I love about this magic concoction is that it really does taste chocolatey — which feels worth mentioning these days, when dates are used to sweeten everything and the result often ends up tasting more like dates than chocolate.
I came up with this one a few weeks after I was diagnosed with cancer. For a while, I was worried about eating almost everything — especially sugar — but my sweet tooth returned with my sanity. So I continued writing recipes like this one that would satisfy and soothe, without the harm of refined sugar, all wrapped up in your favourite mug.
Ingredients
Because this recipe has just five ingredients and no refined sugar, it’s best to use a really high-quality cocoa powder. Using a blender to powder the date sugar beforehand is a nice extra step if you’re a perfectionist — it makes the mix really smooth — but this cocoa can also be made with a hand whisk just fine.
For one serving:
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 3 teaspoons organic date sugar (blended until powdered)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (liquid or powder — or skip it if you prefer)
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 mug of milk of choice (I use organic oat milk)
Method
- First, blend your date sugar into a fine powder (if you’re going for the smoother option).
- In a cup, mix the cocoa powder and date sugar together with the sea salt. If you’re using powdered vanilla, add it in now. Set aside.
- Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat — don’t let it boil. Just until the creamy surface starts to steam. If you are using liquid vanilla, add it to the milk and stir.
- With a whisk at the ready, pour the dry ingredients into the hot milk and whisk until fully dissolved. Lower the heat and continue whisking for a few minutes until smooth.
Tip:
Sometimes I have a few flakes of No Sugar Shop milk chocolate lying around at home. A tablespoon of this, grated into the pan, makes a wonderfully thick mug of cocoa. You can order this from me (soon!) — or just use any chocolate you like, or skip this step entirely. Join the mailing list now to order refined sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate from us in the future.
Prefer a lighter cocoa?
You can mix all the dry ingredients together and just stir in a couple of teaspoons to your milk instead of the full amount, or add more milk.
C A K E Y T I T S 