Spiced hot chocolate (with home made almond milk) - vegan

Summary

Servings
Source	http://thepotluckclub.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/fair-trade-sweetness/
Prep Time	30 minutes

Description

This wonderfully simple hot chocolate will please vegans and non-vegans alike. Making the almond milk is quite simple and best of all, you can use fair trade almonds!

You can mix it up with difference spices, but this one keeps it simple with cinnamon, because unlike with soymilk, there is no beany flavour that needs to be covered up ;)

Ingredients

1 c almonds
1 l water
120 g trade aid drinking cocoa
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

Almond milk

Ratio of ingredients: 1c almonds (about 160g) + 1L water makes about 1L.

Soak almonds in just enough water to cover for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

In a blender: Blend (do not fill blender more than 3/4 full), strain through a sieve or muslin cloth into a bowl/container, then pour into airtight pouring jars. Pour more water over the almonds in the sieve and push with the back of a spoon to extract more juice out of them, until you have about a litre.

In a food processor: Blend (do not fill more than 1/4 full with water), strain through a sieve or muslin cloth into a bowl/container, then pour into airtight pouring jars. Pour more water over the almonds in the sieve and push with the back of a spoon to extract more juice out of them, until you have about a litre.

You can dry the almond pulp in the oven or you can store in an airtight container for no more than a week and add to your breakfast oatmeal, or breads. If you dry them out you can use them in baking like ground almonds, or like breadcrumbs when making stuffings or vegetarian burgers.

Spiced hot chocolate

Place almond milk, drinking cocoa and cinnamon into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the mixture just starts to simmer. Pour and serve.

Notes

You can also make your own drinking cocoa by sifting together a half-and-half mixture of fair trade cocoa and sugar. You could also use fair trade dark chocolate, chopped.

Submitted by zozhou on Sat, 05/21/2011 - 03:38.