Creamiest Vegan Hot Chocolate Recipe

When there is a chill in the air, and perhaps even a chill in your bones, nothing hits the spot quite like a steaming mug of thick, creamy hot chocolate. Each sip of the velvety sweet elixir breathes warmth into your whole being, from the tips of your fingers to the center of your soul — chocolate is magic like that. But for those who follow a plant-based diet, making a creamy mug of hot chocolate can be a challenge. At least it was before this creamy vegan hot chocolate recipe, brought to us by developer A.J. Forget.

Sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and salt provide a solid base for the hot chocolate. In this recipe we use soy milk for the liquid, but you can use whatever non-dairy milk you prefer — it's just a matter of preference. Those ingredients sort out the base of the hot chocolate, giving it layers of sweet, bitter, spice, and just enough salt to balance it out, but the real trick is in the chocolate and cornstarch. While typical hot chocolate recipes might rely on things like milk chocolate or cream to create a richness and silky mouthfeel, this recipe achieves the same result using only vegan dark chocolate and a pinch of cornstarch. Melting a few tablespoons of vegan dark chocolate into the pot adds a fullness to the chocolate flavor. And the cornstarch gives the hot chocolate a thick, velvety texture that will have you thinking it was made with pure cream. All together, it is a silky mug of pure warmth that you'd never guess was vegan.

For this recipe you will need cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, soy milk (or the non-dairy milk of your choice), vegan dark chocolate, and vanilla extract. Once you have all of these ingredients gathered together, you are only a few minutes away from a warm, comforting mug of creamy vegan hot chocolate.

Add the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt to a saucepan and whisk to combine.

Pour in the soy milk while whisking, then start the saucepan over medium heat.

Cook, whisking often, for around 7 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat.

Whisk in the chocolate until melted and well incorporated. Then whisk in the vanilla extract.

Divide the cocoa between two mugs and serve hot, with vegan marshmallows and a grated chocolate garnish, if desired.

At first glance, cornstarch doesn't look like much — just another white powder on your baking shelf — but it is capable of some real magic in the kitchen. This unassuming, inexpensive ingredient is the secret to perfect sauces, gravies, and, yes, hot chocolate.

Particularly when it comes to plant-based foods, it can be difficult to achieve a thick, luxurious texture in sauces. Traditional recipes often rely on things like butter, cream, or collagen to create this richness, but the same effect can be achieved with just a couple spoonfuls of starch slurry. Starches gelatinize when cooked, creating an instant thickener that lends a beautiful, silky texture to whatever they're added to. In this case, we use just 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to accomplish what would otherwise require a whole lot of cream.

The trick to cooking with cornstarch is to make sure that you always make a slurry before you use it. One of the most common cornstarch mistakes is adding it straight into a hot pot, which causes it to instantly gelatinize into little clumps. If you make a nice slurry with water or another liquid, the starch is able to spread out and thicken things evenly. In this recipe, we start with the starch mixed evenly throughout the dry ingredients in the pot. By whisking through the process of heating, the hot chocolate stays evenly mixed. And when the cornstarch reaches its magical gelatinization temperature (starting at around 175 F), suddenly your vegan hot chocolate turns to velvet.

What we have given you with this recipe is a thick, creamy, wonderful vegan hot chocolate base from which to experiment. It is delicious exactly as written, but it is also begging to be tweaked to your own personal preferences. Here are a few ideas of how you can make this recipe your own.

The chocolate in the recipe is a great place to start. We went with a dark chocolate, as this is the easiest chocolate variety to make plant-based, and thus the most widely available. But the world of vegan food is rapidly expanding, and plenty of big chocolate brands are getting into the market. (Even Hershey's has a dairy free chocolate bar.) So, feel free to play around with the chocolate you use.

Next on the list is spices. In this recipe we give you just a hint of spice and aroma in the form of a bit of cinnamon and vanilla extract. But you could easily make a minty hot chocolate with a touch of mint extract. Or mix in a little bit of pumpkin spice like in this Thanksgiving-themed hot chocolate bomb recipe. Or add some chili powder for a fiery hot chocolate.

And you don't have to stop there. Pureed strawberries will create a strawberry hot chocolate recipe perfect for ending a romantic evening. Or add a shot of espresso for a sweet and creamy wake-up on a winter's day.