Cozy up this winter with our instant dairy free hot chocolate mix! It’s easy to assemble and makes great homemade gifts. It’s not only dairy free, but it’s also gluten free and soy free.
If it’s snowy and cold where you are, our dairy free hot chocolate mix is the perfect way to warm up! Our allergy friendly cocoa mix is super easy to make and also makes great homemade gifts as well for friends or loved ones with food allergies.
The awesome thing about this recipe is that there are no dairy free milk or creamer powders in it, so it uses ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. And you can use any favorite dairy free milk to make your hot cocoa, making it really easy to fit this to multiple food allergies.
You can also adjust how dark you want your hot chocolate by using more or less mix. I found that 1 to 2 Tablespoons of this mix is perfect for 1 cup of dairy free milk, but if you like dark cocoa, you can add more.
This recipe is our version of the hot cocoa recipe that was often featured on the back of cocoa powder containers. It’s a classic that we’ve tweaked a bit to fit our
Our cocoa mix is:
- Dairy free and vegan
- Gluten free
- Soy free
- Peanut and tree nut free
- Can be made paleo, low sugar, or sugar free
How to make dairy free hot chocolate mix
This recipe is incredibly easy to make: simply mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container. Super simple!
Since this recipe mixes with hot dairy free milk and doesn’t use any dairy free milk powders, everything is a pantry staple and won’t require purchasing any unusual ingredients.
Back when I originally posted this recipe in 2015, I used coconut sugar instead of unbleached cane sugar, but I recently updated this recipe using my favorite Zulka morena sugar (I use that in just about everything except candy making).
I also updated this recipe with dehydrated mini marshmallows, which are completely optional but so fun to add. It makes this recipe just like dairy free Swiss Miss cocoa mix. If you can’t find mini marshmallows, you can completely skip them.
The vanilla powder is also optional for this cocoa mix. It can be hard to find (at least it’s hard for me to find in our town), so it’s totally optional in this recipe. If you can’t find it, just add a splash of vanilla to your hot cocoa once it’s made if you want that nice hit of vanilla.
How to make this cocoa mix low sugar or sugar free
I originally posted this recipe back in 2015, my original recipe used coconut sugar and Stevia in the Raw. I updated this recipe recently and used unbleached cane sugar, but you can still make this lower in sugar by replacing half the sugar with powdered/baking stevia or using a granulated erythritol, xylitol, or allulose sweetener.
If you’d like to make this completely sugar free, swap all of the sugar for the granulated sweetener and skip the mini marshmallows!
If you’d like a more natural and paleo hot cocoa mix, you can use granulated coconut sugar in place of the cane sugar like we did in our older recipe. It will have a deeper flavor, similar to brown sugar or molasses, but if you love that flavor it will add another flavor dimension!
Update: this recipe is great if you are adding it to hot non-dairy milk, but if you want to just add this to hot water, you can add some non-dairy creamer to this mix. I’d use about 1/2 cup non-dairy creamer in this recipe (we love the Simple Truth non-dairy creamer).
Dairy Free Hot Chocolate Mix (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- ½ cup cocoa powder unsweetened and non-dutched
- ½ cup unbleached Zulka morena sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Powdered vanilla optional
- ¼ cup dehydrated mini marshmallows
Instructions
For the mix:
- Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl.
- Store in an airtight container or jar.
To prepare Hot Cocoa:
- Heat 1 cup (8 ounces) of your favorite dairy free milk (I love this with oat milk).
- For a creamier hot chocolate, use 1/4 cup canned coconut milk to 3/4 cup dairy free milk of your choice (oat, almond, cashew, etc.).
- Whisk in 1-3 Tablespoons hot chocolate mix, depending on how dark you want the cocoa: 1 Tablespoon makes a lighter milk chocolate cocoa, and 3 Tablespoons makes a dark chocolate cocoa.
Notes
Nutrition
Here are a few of our older images for this recipe from 2015:
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
It is easy to make your own “powdered vanilla” – make vanilla sugar, using whatever dry sweetener you like. And use that sugar in your recipe.
Thanks for the tip Vicki!
Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Jody! <3
I am so glad I stumbled upon this recipe. My daughters are lactose intolerant and they will be thrilled when I try this recipe. I love it that the ingredients are easy to find and inexpensive. Thank You!
You’re welcome Lila! I’m happy to share 🙂
Yum! Nice and cozy for this crazy weather!
It’s definitely good! I can’t drink too much of it (I actually have a bit of a chocolate intolerance) but my kids love having this!
YOU KNOW this girl is going to try this recipe… And pair it with WAFFLES — 😀 😀 😀
Yes! It’s awesome that you can have this one, too!
Sweet recipe! Love the cute marshmallows. Happy Wednesday!
Thank you Jess! 🙂