Cocoa for when you're on the beach.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 14 comments link this postYes, you can drink cocoa on the beach. And here's another Julie recipe -- made-up on the fly with vague sense of measurement -- for your benefit:
Sugar-free Hot Chocolate
- Put two heaping spoons of baking cocoa in a cup. Yes, baking cocoa. The raw stuff. Powdered.
- Add one packet of Splenda. Two if you're a person who likes sweet cocoa.
- Add hot water to about 3/4 full.
- Add some skim or 1% milk.
- For additional fun: Make your cocoa have a touch of mint without using flavored syrups (sugar, sugar, sugar) by simply making a cup of peppermint "tea" and adding it in the mix. Or, I actually poured in a little bit of MetroMint peppermint water. Yum. A little goes a long way.
- For even more fun: Go with a bit of cinnamon instead of the mint. Tasty! Think of it as a tame version of Mexican hot chocolate.
- Go wild: Add a wee bit of instant coffee granules and make it mocha.
Spenda's web site offers a different hot chocolate recipe, which calls for 8 packets of Spenda, 3 tablespoons of Dutch processed cocoa, and 2 cups reduced fat milk. This is a recipe you heat in a saucepan and serve immediately when everything is well mixed. For their version of a mocha drink, you are to add 2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules to the milk before heating it up and mixing it over the low heat.
I love hot chocolate. I have a box (newly purchased, talk about your bad timing, though I plan on enjoying it at Christmas) of Starbucks peppermint drinking chocolate... I even own a book dedicated to various hot chocolates. I now have to find a way to adjust the recipes while I'm on the Beach.
UPDATE: I now have a variety of sugar-free hot cocoa recipes, with a download, available. Go and get your free recipes!
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 11/27/2007 10:32:00 PM
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14 Comments:
Wow, 3 degrees in Hampden.
By 
, at
27/11/07 23:03
You can see why I like my chocolate hot.
By 
Julie R. Neidlinger, at
27/11/07 23:12
Mmmmm...scrumptuous idea. Can't wait to try!
By Lois E. Lane, at
28/11/07 12:11
A shot of peppermint schnapps is good in hot chocolate!
By , at
29/11/07 07:37
(Of course, I don't drink alcohol, so the schnapps is out for me... )
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
29/11/07 09:38
Have you ever tried a good Mexican chocolate?
By Rey, at
29/11/07 10:18
I've had one made by Nestle -- Abuelita. It comes in a block form and you cook it up. It's very, very delicious. Spiced. Sometimes I add cinnamon to my Starbucks cocoa, to kind of achieve a similar effect. Not the same, granted, but similar.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
29/11/07 10:23
Abuelita is good, but if you can get "Ibarra" it's better. "Ibarra" comes from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, which, coincidently, is where my family comes from (a little plug).
By Rey, at
29/11/07 15:58
I may have to try Ibarra sometime...
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
29/11/07 16:29
Have you ever tried Bellagio Sipping Chocolate? It's delicious.
By , at
1/12/07 19:36
Oh man! I can't have that Bellagio stuff right now -- too much sugar and such. But it looks so very, very, very, very good.
Sigh.
I might weep.
Sugar-free! Anyone have some seriously good sugar-free cocoas?!
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
1/12/07 19:51
I should write a post listing all the delicious chocolate delights that I can't have.
I'm a masochist.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
1/12/07 19:51
As I've gone on a reduced sugar diet, I've done a lot of research on replacement sweeteners.
If you want to avoid adding more chlorine to your diet (Splenda), natural alternatives exist.
Luo Han Guo is an extract from a Chinese fruit similar to a key lime. It's 250-300 times sweeter than sugar. It has zero calories. You can get it from Wisdom Herbs and a few other companies.
Agave nectar is a low-glycemic sweetener similar in taste to honey. It has 25% fewer calories than honey and little of the glucose spike that honey elicits. The Wholesome Sweeteners brand I use tastes great.
Erythritol is one of several natural sugar alcohols (including xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol) that does not spike your blood sugar. Nor does it have any calories. Sugar alcohols are used in a wide range of diabetic products and are completely natural. (Xylitol, for instance, is produced in large quantities in birch trees, which contributes to the sweet taste of birch bark.)But the advantage of erythritol is that it's the only one of the sugar alcohols that does not give (some) people gas (when consumed in quantity). Erythritol is well-studied and occurs naturally in many foods. (Word of warning: just like dogs can't handle chocolate, their livers can't breakdown some of the sugar alcohols, either. Xylitol can kill dogs in large amounts. I don't know if this is true for erythritol or not.)You can find erythritol in most health food stores. Amazon sells it, too. Prices vary wildly; don't ask me why.
Fructooligosaccharides are large chains of fructose molecules that can't be broken down by the human body. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit. The Japanese use this as a sweetener in a lot of products, and though the FDA recognizes it as safe, it's hard to find here. Inulin is the most common fructooligosaccharide.
Stevia is one that many people mention, but the jury is very much out on this one for me. Lab studies have found it to produce a very toxic component on breakdown that is lethal to some animals. While that same breakdown has not been proven to occur in humans, it hasn't been disproven, either.
I hope this helps.
By DLE, at
3/12/07 08:01
Interesting. I use Splenda. My doctor specifically recommended "extra chlorine" in my diet.
By , at
3/12/07 14:00
