Especially when dieting in the winter, having a bit of something warm, sweet, and comforting as a treat can sometimes be the difference in sticking to your dietary guns and throwing in the towel. As a lover of chocolate, a mug of cocoa fills the bill for me and this recipe, based on unsweetened almond milk, is not only delicious, it’s low in calories and in carbohydrates. I’ve been a fan of unsweetened almond milk for years, using the vanilla version to enrich sugar free chai, as well.

Caramel Hot Chocolate
1 serving

6 ounces (180 mo) Blue Diamond Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Milk
1/2 ounce (15 ml) Torani Sugar Free Caramel Syrup

Put the ingredients into a microwave safe mug and heat on high until warm. How long depends on your microwave, but should be between 60 to 120 seconds. Remember: time will vary depending on whether you’re heating from room temperature or refrigerator temperature.

Alternatively, you can make it in bigger batches, though for that I would not recommend heating it in the microwave. Rather, heat it in a pan on the stove top, in a slow cooker, or if you have one, in a zip pouch in your SousVide Supreme water oven at 160F to 180F, depending on how hot you like your cocoa.

Enjoy!

7 Comments

  1. What is the advantage of flavored almond milk over using heavy cream +/- water and unsweetened cocoa?
    Comment from MD Eades: Mainly calories. One ounce of heavy cream has 100 calories, plus whatever is in the cocoa. 6 ounces of almond milk has but 34. The only other reason would be for those folks taking a holiday from dairy or who don’t eat dairy.

  2. Hi Dr. Eades,

    My comment was a snarky poke at the poor little vegan who couldn’t handle a single hot chocolate in the URL that accompanied my comment. Editing out the URL makes me look like some kind of vegan fool. I am, in fact, shamelessly omnivorous. If you insist that the context in which my comment was posted be removed, could you please just delete the comment altogether, then? Thanks.

    Sorry. Please repost your original comment.

  3. Lovely! We do a version with Organic Cocoa, Vanilla Almond milk and just enough Stevia to suggest sweetness. Nice to have another recipe in the arsenal.

  4. Can anyone suggest an alternative to almond milk, or for that matter almond flour, which are both common in reduced carb recipes?

    I am allergic to almonds.

    Comment from MD Eades: How about coconut milk and coconut flour?

  5. I’d love the chai tea recipe too please!

    Comment from MD Eades: Easy — just go purchase Sugar Free Oregon Chai, mix it in a cup half by volume with water, heat it in the microwave, and then top it off with about a half-ounce or so of half and half or heavy cream per serving and voila!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *