a little time off
Recipe: homemade hot cocoa mix
I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving was able to enjoy their holiday! Me? I remained mostly offline for the past several days and loved every minute of it. Instead of expending my energies on cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I kept the food prep simple and opted to ski. Crested Butte happily received nearly 2 feet of snow before opening day on the mountain. It goes without saying that first tracks were accompanied by the sound of hoots and hollers echoing down the slopes of untracked powder. When the powder was no more, we went skate skiing, did a little mouse proofing of the house, squealed at baby puppy malamutes (that was me doing the squealing), and worked on stuff that always gets neglected back home.
fluffy
fresh
amazing snow for november
trees plastered from snowmaking guns
It seems that once Thanksgiving has passed, the calender shifts into high gear. Suddenly everything I never wanted goes on sale in my in-box. Oh, but it IS nice to nab a deal on those climbing skins I’ve been eying for over a year. For the most part, we ignore the frenzied consumerism because we don’t do gifts over the holidays. What I mean is that we only give homemade or local gifts to people like Jeremy’s staff, my oncologist, our vet, the post office. I try to mix it up from year to year with a variety of baked goods, confections, and something like a barbecue spice rub, homemade jam, or a flavored cheese powder for popcorn. This year, I’m including jars of homemade hot cocoa mix.
bittersweet chocolate chips, sugar, powdered milk, salt, dutch-process cocoa powder
chop the chocolate
mix everything together
scoop into air-tight jars
I do recommend using a good quality bittersweet chocolate, something with at least 60% cacao. And use Dutch-process cocoa as it tends to be smoother than natural cocoa. Chopping the chocolate is your rate-limiting step. Everything else is a matter of measuring and mixing together. The original recipe made enough hot cocoa mix for 6 servings or 1 3/4 cups of mix. I made two quadruple batches to fill 8 12-ounce jars and then some.
hot milk, hot cocoa mix, whipped cream, marshmallows
add the hot milk to the mix
top with whipped cream, marshmallow, and grated chocolate
To serve, you merely use 3 tablespoons of the hot cocoa mix for 1 cup of hot milk or hot water. I tasted both and the hot (whole) milk version is definitely a richer flavor than the hot water version. If you want an adult hot chocolate, spike it with something boozy. Top the whole thing off with whipped cream, marshmallows, and a dusting of grated chocolate or ground cinnamon. It is particularly well-suited for cold nights wrapped in warm blankets.
a little liquid dessert
treat yourself or someone else
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
[print recipe]
from The Kitchn
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate (at least 60%), finely chopped
2 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (12 tbsps) powdered milk
1/2 tsp sea salt
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Spoon into an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 3 months. Makes 7 cups of mix or 24 servings. If you’re making this for yourself, you can quarter the recipe (divide by 4) to yield 1 3/4 cups mix or 6 servings. To serve, warm 1 cup of milk in a saucepan. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of the cocoa mix and stir until the chocolate is melted. Top with whipped cream and/or marshmallows.
more goodness from the use real butter archives
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spiced apple cider |
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buddha’s hand citron vodka |
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chocolate pots de crème |
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homemade marshmallows |
December 1st, 2014 at 1:36 am
Homemade cocoa has got to be one of the most comforting things ever. Just love this!
December 1st, 2014 at 5:25 am
Mmmm. We are big hot cocoa and hot sipping chocolate fans, so this seems like a nice combo. And the powdered milk, hot milk combo gets more Calcium into my milk-avoider. I look forward to trying it!
December 1st, 2014 at 6:38 am
I love making homemade hot chocolate mix. It’s SO much better than the store-bought stuff!
December 1st, 2014 at 11:47 am
Oh my, drooling over the snow shots. I’m cutting waaay back on baking this year, I’m liking the hot chocolate mix idea, may use that for gifting instead. Ski on sista! ;)
December 1st, 2014 at 10:12 pm
This and some cookies (yet to be determined, so many choices!) will be my neighbor and co-worker gifts this year. Thank you!!!
December 2nd, 2014 at 8:27 am
We are having a “cookie exchange” at a P.E.O. meeting. Since I don’t bake, I am doing trail mix. An inspiration from one of your recipes. “Your” oncologist has a little something for you this year…do let me know when you will be this direction, so I am sure to send it with him. Too early and it will likely get lost in his office!!!!
That snow is amazing!!!!!!!!!!
December 2nd, 2014 at 8:58 am
Oh yum!!! (and squee on the baby malamutes!)
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:45 pm
OK, I’ve just gotta ask. Why do you need both powered milk and milk milk? Totally jealous of your snow! Squaw had just one puny lift open yesterday, and by lunch rocks were popping out all over the place off piste. Wah.
December 10th, 2014 at 10:17 pm
Katrina – I think these will make perfect gifts. Comfort in a jar :)
Kristin – yeah, you can’t even tell there’s milk in there with all of the chocolatey goodness.
Eva – absolutely!
farmerpam – thanks, babe!
April – hurray for homemade gifts :)
jill – we’ll meet face to face for our hand offs and avoiding poor little cookies wasting away in the oncology office ;)
Cindi – right?!
Cindy – I think because some folks add hot water instead of hot milk – in which case, the powdered milk keeps the whole thing from tasting like chocolate water. That snow was a couple of weeks ago. Hoping you guys get hammered with snow from this current storm!
December 12th, 2014 at 4:09 am
[…] recept komt van deze site en is genoeg voor 24 flinke mokken chocolademelk metΒ 240 ml […]
December 19th, 2014 at 3:41 am
Love your nails! :p
December 20th, 2014 at 6:00 am
[…] Taking a tip from UseRealButter, we decided to keep the cookie factory closed this year and make from-scratch cocoa mix instead. […]
December 22nd, 2017 at 12:51 pm
My friends Mother used to make us hot chocolate (years ago) and she used butter and I have never tasted hot chocolate that good since. Is there anywhere I can find a recipe for hot chocolate which includes using butter??
December 29th, 2017 at 3:10 pm
Sheila – Believe it or not, I don’t really drink hot chocolate because I have trouble with dairy. You can probably google a recipe for hot chocolate that uses butter and find several versions! :)