Icy cold cocoa!
I created this drink after watching an episode of Oprah about five years ago. Ms Winfrey was drinking a high fat whipped topping frozen cocoa and dancing around the stage in chocolate heaven! I knew I needed to create a healthier version so after many tries I came up with this beauty! All you need is a blender, some natural cocoa powder (see below), skim milk, skim milk powder! some sweetener, ice cubes and you are good to go.
And if Ms Winfrey dancing around isn’t a big enough incentive how about this: a recent study out of Spain published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases touts the combined benefits of cocoa and milk. In the small randomized study the people who received 500 mL of skimmed milk/day with 40g [about 4 tbsp (60 mL)] of cocoa powder for 4 weeks raised their HDL cholesterol by 5% and lowered their bad LDL cholesterol by 14%. Not bad for a chocolatey drink.
Before you down a chocolatey drink you need to know that the study was from the Spanish food company Nutrexpa, who make a high flavanol cocoa powder. If you want to even come close to these cholesterol affecting results you need to be using natural cocoa powder which has at least two-thirds more heart healthy flavanols than regular Dutched or alkalized cocoa powder.
In Canada buy either Hershey’s or Ghirardelli brands of natural cocoa powder. For more info on natural cocoa powder click here
Okay, start blending.
1 cup (250 mL) skim milk
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) natural cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. (15 mL) granulated sugar or sweetener of your choice, I like Agave or honey
1 tsp. (5 mL) pure vanilla extract – only pure will do – artificial extract has a funny aftertaste
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) skim milk powder – see below
2 cups ice
- Put all ingredients into a blender. Whirl till smooth and the ice is blended in. This is slightly noisy, but well worth it. Divide into 2 equal servings, share. Viva La Frozen Cocoa!
Makes – 3 cups (750 mL)
Serves – 2 – 1 ½ cup (375 mL) per serving
Each 1 ½ cup (375 mL) serving contains:
145 Calories, 2 g Total Fat, 0 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 90 mg Sodium, 18 g Carbs, 1 g Fibre, 9 g Protein.
Where do I find skim milk powder?
It’s in the same aisle as the canned milk, usually on the bottom shelf. Loaded with protein and calcium it can really bump up the nutrition and the creaminess of a blender drink.
Just watched Marilyn on cityline stuffing her peppers into her food processor with her fingers which made me cringe because i did that also while making coleslaw a number of years ago on christmas eve and ended up in the hospital getting stitches in the end of my fingers! Dont do it use the plastic thing to stuff things into your processor
Thanks! I always say, “I am a trained professional!” but you’re right! I will follow the rules better next time!
Marilyn: Just watched you on Cityline making Christmas cookies. Loved the episode and have printed off your recipes for this years baking . I have one ten year old grand daughter that loves to bake and I will be giving her your website to look over. Your healthy happy attitude makes me smile and makes your TV appearances so much fun to watch. Keep up the great work.
I have been using a nutritional meal replacement for a few months for weight reduction and will be trying your Frozen Cocoa recipe to add some variety to my regime. Can I use my meal replacement instead of the skim milk powder? It is soy based.
Hi Linda,
Don’t know if it will work, but I think you could totally give it a go – the flavour will be different, but it is similar to skim milk powder in texture.
Let me know!
Peace, love and fibre,
Mairlyn
Hi Linda,
So glad that you are going to bake these with your grand daughter! And let me know about the meal replacement.
Peace, love and fibre,
Mairlyn