Today’s cocoa is with homemade coconut milk. Even though you may be already using coconut milk, you may want to try making your own.
Taste so much better than anything you can buy and it has no additives. It’s also extremely easy to make.
I usually will choose full-fat organic cow’s milk for cocoa. But I do love the taste of coconut especially with chocolate. In order to get the taste of coconut that I love, I must make my own coconut milk. The additives in the coconut milk throw off the taste for me.
That being said, if there is one flavour that masks or makes palatable the taste of just about anything, it would be chocolate. So if you want to buy your coconut milk – go for it.
How easy is it to make coconut milk?
Here’s the recipe.
What you’ll need:
A nut bag – most health food stores sell this. If not, you can buy it online
A blender (any kind, even a small nutribullet)
Recipe
1 cup shredded, unsweetened, sulfite-free coconut.
2 cups clean water (such as spring water or carbon-filtered water)
Place the coconut and water together in a bowl. Mix together and let it for 1 hour. Place in a blender and blend. It’s not going to completely blend but blend it as much as it can. Transfer to a nut bag and squeeze out the milk into a container. Keep squeezing until all the liquid milk is out of the bag.
Tip: If you are going to make this ahead and store in the refrigerator, the fat will separate out from the liquid. This is why commercial coconut milk has additives to try and prevent this. Often, they are not that successful. Just stir it back together or throw it in a blender if the coconut fat is too cold to stir easily.
If making cocoa with it and it’s the right amount coconut milk – heating it with the cocoa and the sweetener of choice is fine. It will melt while on the stove and can be mixed with the other ingredients easily.
What’s left in the nut bag, after the liquid has been squeezed out, is mainly fiber. You can throw this in a smoothie or in the cocoa and it will increase the coconut flavour and fiber content.
Today’s recipe:
Coconut Cocoa with Yogurt
The yogurt adds beneficial bacteria to make this even better for the gut
1 cup fresh coconut milk
1 tbsp raw cacao powder or cocoa powder of choice
1 1/2 tbsp sweetener of choice such as honey, maple syrup, coconut sweetener, sucanat, organic sugar (evaporated cane juice)
1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
1-2 tbsp full-fat cow’s milk yogurt or coconut yogurt
Put the coconut milk, cacao powder and sweetener of choice in a small saucepan and place on the stove on medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add vanilla, if using. Pour into a mug and top with yogurt. Serve.
Tip: Throw some of the left over coconut into the mix – it’s full of prebiotic fiber to feed good bacteria. Plus some of the fat which contains beneficial fatty acids like caprylic acid (anti-fungal) and lauric acid (anti-bacterial). The rest of the fat is in the milk.
Other days for the 7 Days of Cocoa
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