Hot “Chocolate” Mix for Dogs

Do you drink a lot of hot chocolate around this time? Because I pretty much down it by the mugful. For mine I use a simple mix of 1 heaping spoonful cocoa powder, 1 heaping spoonful raw cane sugar, 1/2 spoon vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 cups milk whisked together on the stove. Midway through another mug of chocolatey deliciousness I started to wonder how Suki could join in on the holiday tradition, and then it hit me: Carob! It’s sort of like cocoa, except that dogs can actually have carob. I called the finished mix hot “chocolate” though because hot carob doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

If you can’t find powdered goats milk anywhere you can also substitute it with The Honest Kitchen Pro Bloom. That’s what I ended up having to do. For the carob I used Bob’s Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder, which I found at my local grocery store.

For the test run I made two half servings, one with 1/8 cup of carob in the mix and one with 1/4 cup of carob in the mix. Suki liked them both equally, so make whichever one sounds better to you.

I also made labels for the jar. To use them measure the area of the jar you want each label to cover, resize the photo to whatever you need, then print it on sticker paper (or regular paper and glue it to the jar). Alternatively you could also make it into a double-sided tag and tie it to the jar with ribbon.

It would make a fairly simple and nice gift for the dog owners you know. It also goes great with gingerbread cookies (and yes, I definitely dipped one of the cookies in the hot chocolate for Suki).

Hot “Chocolate” Mix for Dogs
This makes a small batch, so double or even triple depending on how much you need.

1/2 cup powdered goats milk
1/8 to 1/4 cup carob powder

1. Add ingredients to a jar and shake to combine.
2. Use 1/2 tsp per 1/4 cup of water.
3. Boil water, pour over powder, stir, and let cool to a comfortable temperature before serving.