I can’t believe it’s not Milo

Well, I actually can believe it’s not Milo. I lie, because it’s not exactly the same. It has that little crunch just like milo does though! Enjoy it as a hot or cold chocolate milk with the milk of your choosing. It’s a fabulous chocolate ice cream sprinkle too, as the ultimate nostalgic big kid treat, as well as for the little ones. It’s nut free, refined sugar free, fructose free (so a great fodmap diet alternative), additive free and gluten free. The tiny amount of lactose in it is from butter, which most people tolerate. If you can’t do any lactose or cassein at all, make it with organic ghee as it’s an equally great result with it.

If you’re not convinced of needing to let go of the milo, how’s this ingredient list…

MILK POWDER, BARLEY MALT EXTRACT, SUGAR, COCOA, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SOY LECITHIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, THIAMINE HYDRICHLORIDE, FERROUS FUMARATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOUR…  Artificial Vitamin A, Artificial Flavour, Sugar in No 3 spot. It’s just not right. This stuff is far from food, and while it probably won’t do much harm to have the odd glass, if we can do better and it tastes better than where’s the contest? So, here’s to wiping the processed weirdness away with this delicious home made chocolate drink base. Double the batch and pop in a big jar if you have kids over regularly or a big family.

If you make it and like it, please pop by either here in the comments or over on my facebook page here a little note! It always helps others thinking about trying to make something new, if they see others who have! I’m all about inspiring the collective to ditch the weird unpronouncables in supermarket aisles and get clever with a few easy home substitutes! Speaking of substitutes and chocolate, feel free to try my delicious and ludicrously easy 30 second freezer fudge, healthy Faux Fudge or my Cocoa Caramel Chews – the list actually goes on, so happy exploring the recipes!

Real Treats. Happy Bodies.

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Print Recipe

I can’t believe it’s not Milo Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Have a sheet of parchment ready, for a quick turn out of the toffee.
  • Melt your butter in a medium heat cast iron or stainless steel frying pan. Still using teflon? Re-think about it.
  • Add your rice syrup and stir them together until combined and bubbling.
  • Let the rice syrup and butter bubble away slowly together for 10 minutes or thereabouts depending of course on your stove heat and pan thickness. Not enough means it will not crisp up, and too much means you will burn it. Basically, as soon as you detect a change to a darker golden colour, get it onto the baking sheet pronto.
  • Leave on a baking sheet to harden. I use ‘If We Care’ brand. Great stuff.
  • Go and do something else. Read, relax, oh who am I kidding: bathe a child! The last 2 minutes work comes in half an hour.
  • Ok, now that you’re back, just break shards of the praline up into a whizz bang blitzer type of thing. Add your vanilla powder and cacao (1.5tsp first and check if it’s chocolatey enough for you, adding the other 1/2 teaspoon if you like) and blitz together for 30 seconds until a fine chocolate sand has formed. Go on – Taste it!
  • Pop it in a jar and it will keep nicely for a couple of weeks (that’s what I’ve tested thus far. It may well be longer and I will update the storage time, when I can confirm how much longer)

To make Cold Chocolate

  • Dissolve a heaped tablespoon with a tiny bit of boiled water. Top with the milk of your choice and an ice cube or two.

To make Hot Chocolate

  • Dissolve 1-2 heaped tablespoons and 200ml your choice of milk per serving and warm for a few minutes on the stove.

To use as a topping

  • Pick up with hands in little pinches – or by the handful!!! Sprinkle on desired object be it ice cream or chocolate pudding.

 

 

 

P.S. If you make it I’d love to see, so feel free to tag me on instagram @lowtoxlife and show me your efforts! x

P.P.S Fancy getting SUPER confident on all things real food, cooking, food prep and the power of food for disease prevention? I’d love to invite you to check out our On-Demand (meaning you can start literally right this minute!) e course REAL FOOD ROCKSTARS. If you’re over the food overwhelm, confusion, guilty feelings, not being able to truly give up the junk, and want to know how and where to shop, what to do to get super confident in the kitchen, how to explain to others your whole food choices, what to eat and how best to build a strong body to ward off disease and feel vital and energetic, then maybe it’s time you jumped in! The door’s always open and the private support community is awesome. See you in there, Alexx x

 

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Comments 54

    1. Post
      Author

      Yay Sonia – great minds! Enjoy the recipe and I shall absolutely have to check yours out too! No need to cut out treats. Just re-invent them. x

      Reply

  2. Alexx, what are your thoughts on traces of arsenic being found in rice? I got so confused, I stopped using rice malt syrup as a sweetener. Many thanks 🙂

    Reply
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      Author

      Hi Madalaine,

      It’s true, there’s indisputable trace arsenic in Rice syrup – of Chinese origin. Pure Harvest brand is Aussie based. I have noticed however too, that a couple of the articles site studies that are questionably funded – ie, perhaps the sugar, corn industry or specifically high fructose corn lobby, trying to make rice out to be the bad guy? If you tolerate / enjoy maple syrup or raw honey, use in place of anywhere I cite rice syrup, no problems 🙂

      Reply

    2. Buy australia rice and rice syrup. The arsenic in rice is from the ground water. Australia has lower levels of arsenic in the ground water.

      Reply
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        Author

        Yes absolutely Emily. I’ve since seen that Aussie origin rice malt syrup is far lower in arsenic too. Great news! Pure Harvest is my Rice syrup of choice 🙂

        Reply
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  4. Made this morning & popped it into the jar before I ate it all
    This is delicious !!!
    Think I might also make some & leave it in shards for
    Eating as a lolly when I get a sweet craving
    Thanks for sharing this great recipe ,)

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      You’re super welcome Toni! Adding grated ginger to the caramel shard makes delicious ginger lollies too if you’re interested! Alexx

      Reply

  5. This is great. I made it with carob powder instead – disappeared very quickly!!! Now making a cacao version and a carob version. Have tripled the quantity – one 500g jar of rice malt syrup is 350ml. So hopefully it will last a bit longer than last time! (Family of 6!)

    Reply
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      Author

      I love that you’re making a super family batch and great to know it’s do able with carob for the caffeine sensitive and kiddies. Thanks for sharing 🙂

      Reply
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      Thanks Jane – Apparently lots of happy little people out there wth this one. Yay! Knock em down, one fake food at a time 🙂

      Reply

  7. Made this today – YUM!! Hubby and kids LOVED it!! Have been reading about the arsenic traces in rice syrup, so I am wondering, is Barley Malt Syrup an okay sweet substitute to use?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      I too have read about trace arsenic Courtney but don’t believe that in a small serving here and there through rice syrup, that it’s going to be of harm. Our body is able to eliminate trace arsenic, so unless it’s rice milk, rice products and rice syrup every day in the diet, I’m personally not concerned. Feel free of course though to check with your health practicioner. Glad you enjoyed 🙂

      Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Jen, Sorry for late reply. If you’re going to use extract, put it in and bubble in the caramel, otherwise you’ll get a bitter alcohol taste as it wouldn’t have time to evaporate if you added it to the toffee once cooled. Vanilla powder is available from Organics on a budget.com.au of you’re in Australia!

      Reply

  9. Not to mention Milo is a nestle product, which is just one of the most unethical companies out there!

    This sounds delicious. If, like me, you are living in the kitchen dark ages and don’t own a food processor, do you think I decent blender would do?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Kara – I personally don’t use Agave syrup, being 95% fructose (as high as high fructose corn syrup) and from my research, excessive amounts (ie more than just 4 teaspoons adding everything in the day up) of fructose put a big strain on us to process. If you’ve still got some left to use up, then no stress. I’ve not made it with agave so I can’t say for sure, but logically, it would be fine to sub with. Hope that helps 🙂

      Reply
  11. Post
    Author

    Wow. I am honoured that you ‘worked through’ the initial challenges of smoke alarm et all, and got to the good stuff! Happy to have shocked you with deliciousness 🙂

    Reply
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      Author

  13. This recipe is such a winner. My 2 year old adores her hot chocolates from it and I never feel guilty when she shares one with a buddy :-). Yummy. Thank you again Alex for another wholesome recipe in my forever family recipe repertoire :-).

    Reply
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  18. I live in the UK and it’s hard to get Antipodean Milo so I am excited that this recipe exists and is a much healthier thanks so much

    Reply

  19. i just made this for the first time…I’d been wanting to gor ages. BEST ever…and the kids all love it and say its better that normal milo. thank you SO much for the recipe. yummmmm

    Reply
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      Author

  20. Hi Alexx, I made it before and it was awesome. But this time around I may have not cooked it long enough. It looked all great when it was done and I filled it in my glass jar but it is rock-hard now. Anything I can do to get it out/save it and my jar?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Oh dear! Only thing I can think is that moisture got into the jar somehow and caused liquifying… I would gently wash out with hot milk slowly to melt it out and still get to make the most of it x

      Reply

  21. Can this Milo substitute be made with no sugars for diabetics? I have tried stevia with milk products, which does not sweeten. It only turns the mix bitter. How can the caramel flavor be made without sugar? What can be used to get more malt flavor?

    Reply
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      Author

      1. Just made it with coconut oil instead of the butter and it turned out just perfect. Thanks Alexx for this creation – totally loving it & so it my hubby who always loved MILO #nom
        This recipe is sensational!

        Reply
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      Author

      unfortunately it’s the high glucose of Rice syrup that caramelises to a ‘snap’ so well so in this case I’d say no x

      Reply

  27. I think everything published was actually very reasonable.
    However, what about this? suppose you were to
    write a killer headline? I mean, I don’t want to tell you how to run your blog, but suppose you added
    a title to maybe get a person’s attention? I mean I can't believe it'
    s not Milo – Low Tox Life is kinda plain.
    You might look at Yahoo’s home page and see how they write article titles to get people to open the links.

    You might try adding a video or a related picture or two to grab people excited about what
    you’ve written. Just my opinion, it might make your
    blog a little livelier.

    Reply
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      Author

  29. Hi Alexx, I appreciate the recipe, but I’m a bit confused. Just looked at the milo packet in my cupboard and ingredient list is completely different to yours and doesn’t seem too bad to me. Ingredients: extract of malt barley and rice, milk solids, sugar, cocoa, calcium, iron, maltodextrin, vitamins C, B3, B6, B2, D and B12 and soy lecithin. I had a look on the Chemical Maze and couldn’t see any baddies there. I know the sugar is not great, but am I missing something?

    Reply

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