Peppermint Hot Chocolate
Peppermint Hot Chocolate is easy to make, and far better than the instant hot chocolate that comes in a package, which is loaded with sugar and definitely not dairy free. Additionally, I find this soothing and healthy beverage to be a great substitute for all of the peppermint candy floating around this time of year.
I make this dairy free hot chocolate with coconut milk, and thankfully, it does not contain a coconut-ish flavor; it is a rich and chocolatey hot beverage. Use a high quality organic chocolate for a healthier and tastier result.
This Peppermint Hot Chocolate recipe is easy to make and full of nutritious ingredients –just don’t tell your children!
Peppermint Hot Chocolate
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup chocolate drops
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 3 peppermint tea bags
- In a saucepan bring coconut milk, water, and peppermint tea to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes
- Remove from heat and remove tea bags
- Stir in chocolate chips and honey, mixing until melted
- Pour into mugs
- Serve
Serves 2
Dark chocolate is a great treat during the holidays when we are inundated with sugary, unhealthy desserts.
Chocolate is a functional food that is both low on the glycemic index and full of powerful antioxidants. The heart healthy flavonoids in dark chocolate lower blood pressure and decrease blood clotting. It is also thought that dark chocolate fights cardiovascular disease, as well as premature aging and cancer.
Go ahead and get yourself some chocolate, and let us know what your favorite dark chocolate recipe is.
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I’ll have to try this with the cocounut milk and tea bag. I usually make my hot chocolate with almond milk and the organic dagoba cocoa mix. Have you ever tried using peppermint oil instead? I have seen that in several recipes as well.
What’s the word on BPA levels in canned coconut milk? I love coconut milk but am not a big fan of the canned part. What do others do about this?
Native Forest coconut milk is supposed to be in BPA-free cans. However, they’ve diluted it some more recently as the fat content is now done to 10 grams.
I don’t worry about it. Coconut milk and the occasional beans are all that I eat out of cans. Well, at least when I am eating out of MY kitchen. Who knows what comes out of cans in a restaurant!
Elana does have a DIY version of coconut milk that you can make if you’d like.
Check out the coconut milk from Aroy-D: the kind that’s preservative free and comes in packages similar to tetra-pak. Nothing is added to it and best of all, it DOES NOT TASTE LIKE A CAN. A few stores carry it in Montréal, Qc, but I don’t know how easy it is to find elsewhere. I’ve never tasted a better coconut milk.
I never would have thought to use coconut milk to make hot cocoa. Or peppermint tea bags- YUM! Before I was dairyfree I LOVED peppermint hot cocoa. I still make it for my family all the time, and now I’ll be able to make it for myself too!
Sounds lovely. When does the honey get added?
I used powdered Fair Trade dark Cocoa, Agave and fat free cows milk, sorry not a vegan. Also I added a candy peppermint stick hung on the cup for a little fun.
Yummy!
Well technically honey makes Elana’s recipe vegetarian, not vegan. :) Elana makes a lot of recipes DF, I think maybe because someone in her family is sensitive. I’m wondering why she didn’t use agave like you did as it’s the sweetener she seems to use most.
You don’t have to be a vegan to use coconut milk! In fact, milk is actually not that great for you body (more info here: http://whole9life.com/2009/07/dairy-manifesto/). Plus, fat-free dairy is heavily processed. Furthermore, since calcium and vitamin D are fat-soluble (you need to eat it with fat to absorb it), and there’s no fat in fat-free milk (duh!), you can’t absorb the “good stuff”.
Oh, yumm! Thank you for this!
Great recipe!
As for the BPA comment… its my understanding that there is a small amounts that is leached into the food. How much depends on the acidity of the food. The higher the acidity level the more BPA contaminate will be drawn out. Take for instant canned tomatoes – they will have higher levels of BPA than coconut milk.
I think if you rarely used canned food and coconut milk is one of your exceptions you should be ok.
I read an article stating that canned coconut milk actually has a far higher level of BPA than canned fruits and veggies, due to the high fat content.
I switched to Native Forest brand.
Holy yum! I love the fact that this recipe is dairy free and uses my favorite, coconut milk!! Thanks for sharing :D
Coconut milk – brilliant! I’ll have to see if we have peppermint tea otherwise I might experiment with peppermint extract. I love love love peppermint!
Have to say, I’m surprised by the peppermint tea in this. So creative! The girls have their favorite hot cocoa drink they have now and then. This might become “Mommy’s hot chocolate”.
I drink at least a couple of cups of tea during the day now that it’s cold out, but this might be a way to change it up and still be pretty healthy. Thank you so much for this creative recipe. :)
Erika
Love Hot Chocolate – This will be great to try with a bit of stevia.
It will also work well with the Healthy Christmas Cookie Swap. Join in at
http://www.homecookedhealthy.com
Enjoy Christmas cookies this year that taste great and are good for you and your family. Organic, gluten free & sugar free – the perfect combination for a holly, jolly Christmas!
Find delicious recipes and share your favorites that everyone can enjoy.
This looks delicious! I’ve never had peppermint hot chocolate… I think it’s time :)
While everyone else seems to have technical comments… I wanted to share that I thought that green glass month conveyed peppermint beautifully!
I too like to think of dark chocolate as a health supplement… and typically buy the ones with 85% or higher cocoa content. Guilt free indulgence!
Sounds delicious…
I never would have thought of using a peppermint tea bag to make peppermint hot chocolate. Thank you! I look forward to giving it a try.
I think I will use peppermint stevia in addition to the peppermint tea. I do love the peppermint hot cocoa and will definitely try as soon as I find a great peppermint tea.
yummers!!!
peppermint tea bags, brilliant! I can’t wait to try this later, I have everything on hand.
It’s snowing today in Sedona, so hot chocolate sounds especially yummy. I like the idea of the tea bags and coconut milk. I have some cinnamon-cardamon tea bags that might be fun to play with! Thanks, Elana.
Just shared this on facebook. Love this idea. Thanks so much!
Love this idea with the tea bags as well. Just a question on the dark chocolate, is there one that is dairy free?
Can you use almond milk instead of coconut milk? And what about life chocolate chips? Would they taste ok?
Thank you! I’m 34 weeks pregnant and have been craving hot cocoa and peppermint. I got sucked into Starbucks with soymilk a couple times and the sugar rush is dreadful for baby and me.
This sounds awesome. I totally favor dark chocolate to minimize sugar, and maximize healthy p0ly phenols. And it tastes great as well!!! :)
http://questorganic.com/search?q=chocolate
Sounds wonderful…now I have to go out and buy peppermint tea!!
Can anyone tell me why you would use canned coconut milk instead of the stuff in the cartons? Is it actually different? The one I buy is in the refrigerated section, so it’s clearly not shelf stable, but is there a taste, consistency, nutrition reason for using the canned? Or is the refrigerated stuff just not widely available?
In any event, I will try this recipe with the coconut milk I usually buy very soon!
Hi!
The canned coconut milk is (or should be…) only coconut and nothing else. The stuff in the cartons has been treated and processed to mimic cow’s milk. There’s more in the carton than just coconut. Canned coconut milk is MUCH thicker (think heavy whipping cream v. skim milk) so there’s that too.
I made this recipe last night with the canned stuff, and used cocoa powder instead of chocolate. It ROCKED!! This recipe will be in heavy rotation this winter, for me!
Thanks Austin girl! Sounds like the carton is a bit akin to watered down canned…In that case, I’ll replace the water in this recipe with my carton coconut milk “beverage” until I get around to buying the good canned stuff. :)
Thank you very much for this peppermint hot chocolate recipe. Love that you used coconut milk for this. :)
Ooo….that sounds so incredible! Would love to have a cup on a chilly, rainy morning like this one! Elana…I’m eyeing your cookbook over in the sidebar. Oh my gosh…the cover has me wanting to dive right in!
Such a pleasure meeting you this weekend! Hope to see you again soon! :)
Love this recipe and saw the pics on my friend Marla’s site of you at GH this past weekend. Looks like such a fab time. Hope it was a blast :)
Elana, You have a fantastic blog and great information for celiacs and just people that want to eat healthy. I love getting your recipes and I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger award. Congratulations on your books and keep up the good work! You can see your link here: http://culturalcomments.blogspot.com/2011/12/versatile-blogger-award.html
Love the idea of it!
Elana-
Does this mean you have un-given up chocolate? ;) I’m glad
Looks delicious! I must point out, however, that honey is not usually considered vegan. That said, I know of at least two vegans who do not object to locally-produced honey, from bees treated with kindness and respect. Please go vegan. (It’s guilt-free fun!)
What a great way to drink hot chocolate especially for those that are sensitive to milk.
I made peppermin hot chocolate today . . . Delicious, easy, & clever!
I made this last night, and it was delicious!
I used a super big mug, and it didn’t quite fill it… I guess my serving sizes are a bit big ;)
Next time, I think I will try one or two peppermint tea bags instead of three, as the peppermint flavour was a bit too strong for me (and I love peppermint!)
So great! I was afraid when I switched to primal, I’d have to give up my peppermint hot chocolate forever. Thanks for this!
I will be simplifying my holidays this year by sending one of my daughters to spend Christmas with her boyfriend! This works out well because Christmas coincides with Chanukah this year. My daughter will spend the first night of Chanukah with us and then off she goes until after Christmas when she will catch the end of the holiday. Chanukah week has always been stressful, coming up with a thoughtful gift each night that would please. I believe we’ve happened upon the perfect solution!
Ok so I passed this recipe on to my neighbors so we could make this last wkd when I was going over to visit them .. We made it .. We followed the recipe exactly and it was HORRENDOUS!! No one could finish their drinks, even after a couple of us spiked it with brandy. I’ve never tasted a chocolate drink that bad .. Getting regular hit chocolate via a packet & infusing that with mint tea would be SOO much better SANS the coconut milk .. The coconut milk is what ruined much of it I think.
Hi your hot beverages sound great as I am always looking for substitues for dairy caffein and sugar I will try your pumpkin latte maybe without pumpkin depending on my guests
Also the peppermint hot chocolate I will probably substitute raw cocoa nibs for choc chips and maybe almond milk?
Ok, so this may be a dumb question, but I have to ask….I see lots of dairy free recipes that call for coconut milk, but is that canned, or in the carton like almond milk? Or, does that even matter. I know some specify canned, but what if it doesn’t, like this recipe…which should I use?
Thanks!!!
I make mine with similar ingredients, but instead of peppermint I often do orange – just a few drops of organic orange oil right before serving.
In the morning I like it best with a few dashes of garam masala.
I vote for Chilli or Cardamom!
When using coconut milk in your recipes, do you used the canned which does not contain all the other “stuff” that the coconut milk “drink” (cartoned) contains?
Hi,
My family has high cholesterol absorption which means that I can’t have anything with high cholesterol and coconut milk/cream is full of it. Would I be able to use something like soy milk instead?