Polar Vortex Vegan Cocoa ❄️❄️❄️

One of my favourite memories of snow days as a child is after playing outside in the frozen wonderland for hours, I'd come inside and have a mug of hot chocolate. We used to make it from scratch in the kitchen, grandma would mix and brew, making me believe it was magic, she taught Pookie who would whip it up for us. Eventually, the making it from scratch turned into a packet and a mug of water or milk and a quick zap in the microwave. I wanted to bring back that home feeling I had as a child, but we certainly didn't make vegan hot chocolate in 1996. And with this polar vortex swooping down on us, I figured now would be the perfect time to make some delectable hot cocoa that you can enjoy during the chilly winter months!

It's really simple to make! You can make it in a saucepan on a cooktop or in a large mug in the microwave.

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk*

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 Tbsp vegan semisweet chocolate (chips or bar // chopped)*

1/2 packet of Stevia

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

*You can also use unsweetened chocolate almond milk

*I love the Enjoy Life baking chocolate chips or their vegan candy bars :D



For Microwave:
In a large microwave-safe mug, combine the almond milk, cocoa powder and vanilla essence. Mix well. Put on for roughly 1 minute. Remove from microwave and add in chocolate chips, the minis really work best for this and the Stevia. Give it a decent stir. Put in and set the microwave to the beverage setting. Check to make sure that chocolate is completely melted before removing from microwave. The mug will be very hot, so be careful when removing it from the microwave. The mixture should be a nice rich chocolate colour.

                                                                                      For Cook Top:
In a small saucepan, pour in your almond milk, cocoa powder and your chocolate chips. I used the mini ones because they tend to melt faster, but you can use the regular size. Really makes no difference. Under medium heat, heat the milk, cocoa powder and chocolate until the chocolate has almost completely melted, during this, you want to stir constantly to ensure that none of the chocolate bits stick to the bottom of the pan. Do not let the mixture come to a boil. When the chocolate is almost completely melted add in the Stevia and vanilla essence. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted. It should be a nice rich chocolate brown colour.

**If you don't wish to use almond milk, you can use cashew milk for an even creamier treat. Or if you're wanting to live dangerously do half almond, half cashew milk!