Recipe - Coconut Cinnamon Frozen Hot Chocolate Pops

It's mid-June now, and that means summer is here. It's hot out there, especially here in Los Angeles. Most people, when I mention having a hot chocolate in the summer, look at me oddly and say something like "But it's so hot in summer, I like hot chocolate in the winter". It makes no difference that while they're saying this, they may be holding some scalding hot coffee or tea, probably their third or fourth of the day. People just associate hot chocolate with winter and Christmas. Let's try and change that, ok?

But not today! Today we're going to ask the hot chocolate to cool down a bit for us. Of course, lots of folks love iced coffees and frappuccinos. And yep, there are iced hot chocolates out there, too! I'm going to explore a bunch of them all summer long, starting with some good old fashioned frozen chocolate pops. Taza Chocolate came up with this recipe, using the coconut milk as the base. I switched it around a bit because I didn't have any of their Oaxacan discs handy.

Ingredients are as follows:

1 13.5 oz can of coconut milk
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate (try for 50-70% cacao)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Baker's, you've seen that stuff, right? It's in the baking section of the grocery store. Did you know Baker's was the first producer of chocolate in America? I'll bet you thought it was Hershey's. Nope, Baker's was here before them - over 100 years before them! The Baker's box says 1780, but Dr. James Baker and John Hannon were importing beans and making chocolate in Massachusetts as early as 1764. So don't walk by Baker's thinking it's some off-brand you're afraid to try. It's 12 years older than our country is!

These are the popsicle molds I have. They are great! We usually fill them with lemonade, but today, they will experience the majesty of chocolate.

Turn on your stovetop and get the coconut milk into a pan.

While that's warming up, chop up the chocolate. If you've been following this blog, you know this helps it melt much faster. Always chop the chocolate.

Once the coconut milk is nice and hot, add in the chocolate, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Whisk it around, make sure everything is incorporated nicely and the chocolate melts smoothly.

And taste it! It's really good. Really, really strong, but definitely delicious. If we were going to serve this as a hot drink, maybe we'd tame it down a bit with a cup of milk or something. But we're not, so just let it be its thick, strong, tasty self.

We now have an almost-boiling pot of coconut chocolate drink that we need to put into the freezer. Let's help it cool down first, though. We don't want to melt our popsicle molds.

I set up a little ice bath for it. I filled a large bowl with ice cubes, then put a smaller metal bowl on top and made sure it was sitting level. Then I poured in the warm chocolate and stirred it for maybe 5 or 10 minutes.

Once it was at about room temperature, I filled the popsicle molds.

They have a little fill line marked on the inside. Stick to that! If you're freezing something with water in it, the water expands a little bit. With these chocolate pops, it leaves a little space underneath for dripping.

Throw them in the freezer, and in 8 hours, bust them out and enjoy!

They are so good! Addicting, even! They are still pretty strong, but if you liked fudgsicles growing up, then you will love these! And of course, you can change up the recipe to create any flavor combination you want. Maybe some chili powder mixed in there? I know, I know, "It's summer, it's hot, who would want to add chili into a popsicle..."