This Salted Bourbon Hot Cocoa is the perfect alcoholic treat to warm you up from the inside out! Rich and creamy hot cocoa, spiked with bourbon, topped with whipped cream and plenty of salted dark chocolate drizzle. This delicious low carb and keto friendly drink is an indulgent treat with minimal impact on your blood sugar because it's sugar free and low in carbs.
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I think you guys might have noticed by now that we LIVE for rich and decadent, but also, sweet and salty! This low carb salted dark chocolate bourbon hot cocoa is a prime example of all the great things that we love. It's super rich and decadent. It's a cocktail and dessert combined basically, brimming with lovely bourbon and decadent sugar free dark chocolate chips.
If you're in the mood for something that tastes like ice cream combined with rich chocolate and some bourbon? You're in luck! Feel free to skip the the recipe card if you're all ready to go, but if you have questions, please read through the post where we have covered common questions, tips and tricks.
Ingredients
- Unsweetened nut milk or low carb milk of choice - We love using low carb whole milk by Organic Valley or Fairlife low carb milk. They are so creamy and rich, and quite low in carbs compared to regular milk. They range between 6-7g net carbs per 1 cup, compared to 13g net carbs for regular whole milk. If you're looking to cut down the carbs even more, just use some unsweetened nut milk. If using nut milk, maybe try mixing with heavy whipping cream as opposed to half and half for a creamy and rich texture.
- Half and half - This makes this low carb bourbon hot cocoa seriously creamy. We use half and half instead of heavy whipping cream but you could use either or! You could sub for heavy whipping cream if you prefer for an extra layer of decadence, but this does add calories (obviously).
- Sugar free dark chocolate- Use your favorite sugar free dark chocolate or dark chocolate chips! We use dark chocolate chips because it's what we had on hand and they melt very easily. You could use Baker's unsweetened chocolate if you want, or cocoa powder instead. Here's how to substitute chocolate chips for cocoa powder. We love Dutch process cocoa because it's super rich and has less of a bitter taste, but use what you want. Just keep in mind that since we used chocolate chips, we used a little less sweetener. If you opt for using unsweetened chocolate or cocoa powder, you will need to add more sweetener.
- Sweetener of choice - We love Swerve! Add sweetener to taste, and it will depend on what type of chocolate or cocoa powder you use. The more sweetener that's in your chocolate, the less sweetener you will need to use.
- Kosher salt - This is how we add salt to this salted dark chocolate hot cocoa! Feel free to add to slowly and to taste. We also top our chocolate drizzle with a little bit of kosher salt and MMMMM it is yummy!
- Ground cinnamon- Technically optional, but highly recommended for this decadent low carb hot cocoa. It pairs especially well with the bourbon we chose, which has hints of cinnamon, along with other flavors that you'll find in this drink.
- Vanilla extract- We use vanilla extract to bring another layer of warmth and sweetness to this hot cocoa. You will find vanilla extract in nearly everything sweet that we make. It is optional of course, but always recommended!
- Bourbon - Last, (but most certainly not least!) you need bourbon of course. We do add it at the end once the hot cocoa is off the heat, so that we don't cook out the alcohol. Add to taste. We used Woodford Reserve Double Oaked for this recipe, and it was absolutely divine. Woodford Reserve’s Double Oaked Bourbon, has hints of vanilla, toasted oak, chocolate, caramel and spices, so it was an obvious match for this yummy cocktail.
Let's Make This Salted Bourbon Hot Cocoa:
In a small pot, heat your heavy whipping cream and milk until warm, then stir in your chocolate chips, whisking until melted. Stir in sweetener, cinnamon, and salt to taste and stir until dissolved. Allow to warm until just below boiling.
Remove from heat, then stir in your bourbon and vanilla extract. Pour into mugs drizzled with chocolate
Garnish with whipped cream, a chocolate drizzle, and some more salt if you desire! (Can you tell that we love salt?)
Serve and Enjoy this Salted Bourbon Hot Cocoa!
Quick Note About This Bourbon Hot Cocoa Recipe:
This Salted Bourbon Hot Cocoa recipe has been on our website since December of 2018, but we made some adjustments and took new photos to make it even better. We hope you enjoy!
We'd also like to note that we partnered with Woodford Reserve over on Instagram to create this drink, but we weren't required to share on our blog. We just wanted to, obviously! I mean, it's gorgeous and delicious! We'd also like to note that you should also bourbon to taste, and be careful about adding TOO much! This drink goes down easily, and we don't want you to get super buzzed on accident! We've included more details in the recipe card below.
Can I Make This Low Carb Hot Cocoa Dairy Free?
Yes! You absolutely can. An easy way to do this would be to swap out the milk and half and half or heavy cream with unsweetened nut milk. Some good options would be almond, coconut or macadamia nut milk. If you want to add some extra creaminess to this bourbon hot cocoa, you could add in some full fat creamy coconut milk as well. (It comes in a can) and would make a delicious creamy add-in!
If using full fat coconut milk: Just make sure to read the ingredients, there's a lot of added sugar in some different products that resemble full fat coconut milk. For example, cream of coconut has lots of added sugar, it's not the same as full fat coconut milk or coconut cream!
Another note: just be careful if using full fat coconut milk or heavy cream not to let the mixture boil. Both substances will curdle if boiled. Basically you just want to let the mixture warm up but not to the point of boiling.
Can I Make This Low Carb Hot Cocoa More Keto Friendly or Low In Carbs?
Yes! Again, your best bet is going to be using unsweetened nut milk instead of low carb whole milk when it comes to lowering the carbs in this drink. We do tend to opt for low carb whole milk because it's so creamy, but we have tried this recipe with unsweetened nut milk and it was also delicious, especially if we use heavy whipping cream instead of half and half.
While we have made this recipe with heavy whipping cream, (when using whole milk) we tend to use half and half instead because it cuts down on the calories tremendously, but it also cuts down on the carbs slightly as well.
Lastly, you could use unsweetened cocoa powder to lower the carbs. While a lot of sugar free dark chocolate doesn't have much added to it, there are sometimes additives like fibers, etc. These fibers add total carbs, and sometimes are a form of sweetness. Check your labels and just use what you have on hand or like best.
Here's Some More Low Carb Recipes You Will Love:
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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere
📖 Recipe
Salted Bourbon Hot Cocoa Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups low carb whole milk or nut milk of choice
- 1 cup half and half
- 6 oz sugar free dark chocolate chips (could sub for ⅓ cup cocoa powder, or unsweetened chocolate and add additional sweetener to taste)
- ⅓ cup sugar free sweetener of choice
- ½-1 teaspoon kosher salt (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
- 3-4 oz bourbon of choice, to taste
- whipped cream, salt, and chocolate drizzle to garnish
Instructions
- In a small pot, heat your heavy whipping cream and milk until warm, then stir in your chocolate chips, whisking until melted.
- Stir in sweetener, cinnamon, and salt to taste and stir until dissolved. Allow to warm until just below boiling.
- Remove from heat, then stir in your bourbon and vanilla extract. Pour into mugs, top with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and salt and enjoy this Bourbon Hot Cocoa!
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Barb Booton says
how do you make chocolate drizzle?
Briana says
Hi Barb,
We'd recommend using your favorite chocolate bar and cutting it into small pieces with a sharp knife, then placing it in a microwave safe bowl and heating it at 50% power for in 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval. Stop heating it when the chocolate is almost all the way melted, the residual heat will continue to warm it up and melt it. If you want, you can add in about a teaspoon of coconut oil or a neutral oil to make the drizzle even more "drippy"! You can also do this using the double boiler method on the stove, with a heat proof bowl over a small saucepan with a little bit of water in it. Bring the water to a boil, and make sure the bowl the chocolate is in doesn't touch the water. You can melt it that way and stir constantly until it's melted. We hope you enjoy it!