I love chocolate liqueurs. But most of them involve milk, which is not an option if you are lactose intolerant. Or vegan. So I searched the net for the best chocolate recipes without milk. The best ones are below, together with my own creation. You would be surprised at what excellent, but limited, options are available. Surprisingly, I did not find any vegan recipes which only exchange milk in chocolate liqueur with a suitable vegan alternative (e.g. soy or almond milk). I guess there must be a good explanation – like strong sedimentation of cacao solids and little influence on the final taste.
Internet recipes
There are some nice and easy recipes, for instance this one. You just cook 100 grams of bitter cocoa powder and 350 grams of brown sugar in 600 grams of water until it boils and continue for 10 minutes. After it cools down, alcohol is added and – finished. I naturally made some. The taste before cooking was sharply sweet. It did mellow after cooking, so do cook it for at least 10 minutes. The amount of alcohol is set, but it can be freely adjusted. I aimed for 20% ABV. Therefore I measured the volume of the cacao mix and added the same amount of vodka. The final result was great. It smelled nicely and had a pleasant cacao taste. And the aftertaste was fabulous. However, It lacked a bit of thickness and smooth mouthfeel for my taste. And it was actually a cacao liqueur (an exceptional one, to be sure) but I wanted something more chocolatey. There are many similar recipes on the internet, with only minor variations, like aging for two weeks. Well aging for one week had no effect on the taste of my liqueur. Surprisingly, after on week the liqueur was still homogenous with little sediment, that could be easily resuspended.
Another alternative chocolate Iiqueur I found was this one. It is similar to the above recipes, with a slight modification. Cacao solids are removed from the liquer, thus solving sedimentation problems and making the consistency more water like. There are, as expected, similar recipes. As the second recipe suggested, I also did not bother with cacao nibs, I just used cacao powder and a really dense sieve to separate cacao from the liquer. This proved to be a tiresome and lengthy procedure. Although the results were good – the liqueur was more fluid and it showed no signs of sedimentation – I would not recommend it. It simply takes too long – we are talking 2-3 hours for 0.5 liter of starting liquer.
My chocolate liqueur
In my opinion, chocolate liqueur should have a thick, velvety texture. Just like real chocolate melting in your mouth. But none of the recipes I found were fulfilling in that regard. Further, in regards of taste all liqueurs above are more cacao liqueurs than chocolate liqueurs. There simply is nothing in the preparation process to change cacao to smooth chocolate, even aging does not do the trick. Therefore I decided to try to make my dream chocolate liqueur.
Since I wanted a nice chocolate taste, I used baking chocolate as the starting material. Just make sure your chocolate does not contain any milk – you want to prepare milk free liqueur after all. Baking chocolate should, in theory, be milk free, but you newer know. And do choose a quality brand of baking chocolate to guarantee a superb taste. If the chocolate has a mediocre taste, do not expect superb results. After melting the chocolate I simply mixed in some vodka. When everything cooled down, a nice mousse formed – apparently the amount of vodka was too low to liquify the chocolate. Since I did not want to increase alcohol content anymore, I added some brown sugar dissolved in water. That worked perfectly, the liqueur was liquefied and had a really nice texture. There was, however, a subtly sharp vodka aftertaste. A hint of vanilla flavor solved the problem perfectly. The final result was a smooth, velvety chocolate tasting liqueur. Just as it should be.
The recipe (for approximately 1 litre of liqueur)
- 210 g baking chocolate
- 350 ml water
- 150 g brown sugar
- vanilla essence or vanilla stalk
- 500 ml vodka
Melt the chocolate, but do not overheat it! Best bet is to use a water bath, but a microwave is also an option, if you have the experience. For me, microwaving the chocolate for 30 to 60 second on maximum power is usually enough. Add the vodka intu the molten chocolate and mix until you have a smooth, homogenous mass. Heat up the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Add vanilla essence or add a vanilla stalk (cut in half) and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Add the water extract (remove the vanilla stalk) to chocolate mass and mix until you have a thick, homogenous liqueuer. Pour through a sieve to remove possible chocolate pieces. Store in a tightly closed bottle in a dark place. You will see some liquid separation after standing for a day or two – just shake well and it should disappear. In about two weeks of shaking the liqueur should stabilize for good. The chocolate part will always form on top, so it might be a good idea to turn the bottle upside down to prevent clogging in the neck in the first two weeks. After that you can leave the bottle in the normal position.
