Craving a cup of warm, creamy, comforting chocolate on this cold, snowy December day? Look no further than this hot cocoa mix, sweetened with dextrose.
Wow, we are still trying to dig ourselves out of the eleven inches of snow that fell yesterday! It’s the perfect time for hot cocoa. But what about chocolate? Can people with fructose malabsorption have chocolate? I honestly don’t know. I know that something like a milk chocolate candy bar isn’t good because it has sugar in it, and thus, fructose. But what about just plain unsweetened cocoa powder? I tried to find some information out there, but came up confused. I know that unsweetened chocolate doesn’t have fructose, but what about fructans? Hmmmm. I would love to know the answer.
Well, I was having such a craving for hot cocoa the other day and decided to come up with my own easy hot cocoa mix to just try it. I know that I can tolerate dark chocolate in reasonable amounts. In fact, I usually have a piece of dark chocolate every day (those Ghirardeli squares are awesome). So I adapted my favorite Hot Cocoa recipe from Alton Brown to be fructose-free. I replaced the powdered sugar with dextrose/glucose. I also eliminated the powdered milk, realizing that many people with fructmal are also lactose intolerant. Instead, you can use your favorite non-dairy milk in place of hot water. Or you could use cow’s milk if you can tolerate it. Any milk will do. I like to use unsweetened soy milk for protein. Unsweetened vanilla almond milk would also be delicious.
Just mix up a batch of this, store in an airtight container and enjoy all winter long. And of course, it tastes even better when you store it in a container hand-painted by your mom and drink it out of your favorite snowflake mug. This seems to agree with me so far. I hope you are able to enjoy this treat as well!
Low-Fructose Hot Cocoa Mix
makes about 14 cups of cocoa
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups powdered dextrose/glucose
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Combine the dextrose, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt in an airtight container and stir well.
- To make a cup of cocoa, measure 1/4 cup mix into a mug. Heat 8 oz. milk to desired temperature and pour into mug. Stir and enjoy.
Hi, Dianne! I LOVE this recipe! We're snowed in right now and I made it for me 3 year old FructMal son and he has been drinking it like it's water! I shared your recipe on my blog (didn't copy it, just shared the link) because it was so fabulous! Thank you for this – and I'm checking out the rest of your recipes, too. http://cradlerockingmama.com/hot-cocoa-no-dairy-or-fructose/
Love your hand painted jar and snowflake mug, too. 🙂
So glad the recipe worked for you. Thanks for sharing on your blog!
This is the best hot cocoa ever. Not that I remember what it used to taste like. It's filling (I halved the recipe and put in 2 tbsp of mix to 4oz of lactose-free milk) but I was able to finish it and I feel normal. THANK YOU!
So glad you were able to enjoy the hot cocoa!