Peppermint Chocolate Chip Holiday Shake [Vegan]

Contents

Kathy Hester lives in Durham, NC with her 2 cats, 2 dogs, her very own…

This shake is made with no ice cream (vegan or not)! All you need is ice, nondairy milk and a little pectin or xanthan gum to hold it all together.

Ingredients You Need for Peppermint Chocolate Chip Holiday Shake [Vegan]

1 cup nondairy milk
1 tablespoon vegan mini chocolate chips or grated chocolate
⅛ to ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract, to taste
sweetener, to taste if needed
⅛ teaspoon xanthan gum or 1 teaspoon pectin (do not leave out – it holds it together!)
2 cups crushed ice
crushed candy canes, for garnish

Add the milk and chocolate to your blender. Blend until the chocolate is in small pieces. It will be blended again, so it’s okay if it’s still a bit larger than you want.
Note: If you have a less powerful blender you can chop the chocolate chips first. Mine made short work of them.
Add ⅛ teaspoon of the peppermint extract and blend again. Taste and decide if you want to use the other ⅛ teaspoon peppermint extract.
Now is also the time to test the sweetness. I used unsweetened vanilla soy milk and added about 1½ tablespoons agave to mine. You can make this with unsweetened grated chocolate and use stevia or coconut nectar of that fits better into your style of eating.
Now that the mix is exactly the way you want it, blend in the xanthan gum or pectin. This is what will hold the liquid together with the ice.
If you have a high speed blender add all the ice, but for a less powerful one add 1 cup at a time. Blend until the mixture is smooth, with the exception of the tiny chocolate bits.
Serve with a straw and garnish with candy cane bits. (It’s very therapeutic to make them. Unwrap the candy, stick in a zip lock bag, cover with a towel and hammer them into tiny pieces.)