How To Make Homemade Healthy Hot Chocolate

This healthy hot chocolate recipe gets its flavor from cocoa and is naturally sweetened with pure maple syrup. You don’t have to feel bad about this hot cocoa!

Hot chocolate is a favorite drink around our house on cold days. It’s the perfect thing to warm you up after doing the animal chores or a long walk. We drink it a couple of times a week in the middle of winter which gives us plenty of opportunity to play around with how we make it.

A while ago, the hot chocolate I made with processed sugar started tasting too sweet, so I added a lot of cocoa to thin it down. I decided I should try to make it with something else as a sweetener to see if it would taste better. I saw the maple syrup in the fridge one day when I was grabbing the milk for hot cocoa and thought that maple syrup would probably make a good sweetener.

So I made my hot cocoa that day with maple syrup and it was better than I expected it to be. I make my hot chocolate with maple syrup now and there is no more overly sweet taste to it, making it much more enjoyable!

Ingredients In Healthy Hot Chocolate

This healthy hot cocoa uses just 2 ingredients, but you could add a variety of things to this recipe if you wanted to.

• Cocoa – Unsweetened cocoa powder, I just use great value cocoa, but you can taste the difference if you use a higher quality cocoa.
• Maple Syrup – Pure maple syrup only. I cannot tell you how it would taste with fake syrup, I have not, nor will I ever try this recipe with fake syrup, but I certainly would not suggest trying to replace the maple syrup with it. I love the flavor that maple syrup gives to this hot chocolate. I wish I would have thought of using maple syrup in hot chocolate before.
• Water – Water is the base of this recipe. Another option would be to use milk.

Add-Ons

Now some of these add-ons take away from the healthy part of this recipe, but it’s fun to change things up every once in a while.

• Marshmallows – Add some marshmallows on top, they add a little bit of flavor and they are fun anyway!
• Milk – You can make this recipe with milk instead of water, or just add a splash of milk to cool it down.
• Heavy Cream – Add a bit of heavy cream to make this hot chocolate rich.
• Cayenne Pepper – Add a pinch of cayenne pepper to give it a little kick and to warm you up a little faster. Cayenne pepper has health benefits too, such as improving your digestive health and protecting your heart.
• Whipped Cream – Whipped cream is fun and it makes this drink a little richer.
• Peppermints – Throw in a peppermint candy or a peppermint stick to turn this into peppermint hot chocolate.

How To Make Healthy Hot Chocolate

1. First, heat the water or milk on the stove. I like to boil my water and then I cool down my drink with milk or a little cold water so that I can get it just the right temperature.
2. Add the cocoa powder to your cup and stir well to ensure all the cocoa is mixed in. The cocoa will turn to a sort of sludge in the water so it does take a bit to get it all mixed in.

3. Pour in the maple and stir. Taste and add more if needed.

4. And any desired toppings and serve!

If you don’t care for this healthy hot chocolate, try my more normal hot chocolate recipe that is made with just three ingredients!