Cocoa is good for you, you know. Maybe not the kiddie hot chocolate you may have grown up with, mostly sugar and buried in marshmallows. But grown up hot chocolate – cocoa – chocolat chaud certainly can be.
So I always loved hot chocolate as a child growing up in a proper northern winter, but the epiphany happened when I sipped, “Chocolat L’Africain” at Chez Angelina in Paris. Trust me, your life — all of your lives — will never be the same after sipping chocolat at Chez Angelina.
Chocolate has a long history starting with the Mayans who drank cocoa unsweetened and spicy. I love chocolate and choose it most of the time when having something sweet. What I love about chocolate, however, is that it is still delicious when it is less sweet. And, it is more nutritious.
Cacao, or cocoa powder is a source of fiber, protein, fat, antioxidants and trace minerals. Historically it has been all of the sugar that makes chocolate not the best choice for every day. For anyone working on reducing sugar in the diet, you can still enjoy a warm drink using very little or no sweetener. Now, here is what you really want to hear. It’s good. It’s really good.
It’s simple. Make a ganache!
Here’s what I do:
Coarsely chop 1 ounce of dark chocolate. You could use keto friendly chocolate to reduce the carbohydrates. Warm 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of heavy whipping cream to just before boiling. Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate and wait for five minutes. After five minutes gently whisk your ganache. It will combine into an emulsion of chocolate and cream, shiny and luscious.
At this point add 4 to 6 ounces of whatever “milk” you would like to finish off your chocolat. I do drink dairy, but also enjoy making my chocolat with a chocolate coconut cream ganache and coconut milk.
Delicious! What I realized I most enjoy about chocolat chaud is the richness of chocolate and the lusciousness of the drink itself.
Do look for more precise details of this recipe in a future blog post. Since the only source of sugar is in the dark chocolate (unless you use stevia sweetened chocolate which would give you completely sugar free), this chocolat will have far fewer calories and carbohydrates. What I love about cocoa is how easy it is to make healthier, or keto-friendly and still be so good.
Chocolate! Nutritious and delicious. I suspect there are a few more chocolate posts to come.
Be well 🙂
Annette
Post Script: Thinking about hot chocolate & cocoa & chocolat chaud in January has made me happy. I live in Minnesota, and one thing that is well known about Minnesota is our long — and often cold — winter. I do not sip a hot chocolate every day, but like life, the joy is in the journey. The entire journey of planning, researching and now writing this post has been a joy.
Photo credit: Le Blog De Lili & A.M. Beaulieu
Source: The Spruce Eats
