Saturday, January 9, 2010

homemade hot chocolate

We interrupt these Christmas reflections to share a critical recipe: Homemade hot chocolate!

The temperature is hovering between 0 and 10 degrees today in the tundra where I live, and we've been going through a lot of hot cocoa.

A few weeks ago, Llama Papa took our boys -- plus a few extra from the neighborhood -- to the big sled hill for an afternoon of fun. He called me on his way home so I could start the cocoa, and I had a moment of panic when I realized I only had two little packets left.

So I asked my good friend, Google, what to do, and it gave me lots of wonderful recipes using sugar and cream and cocoa powder. After a few weeks of tweaking, here my new go-to recipe for hot cocoa:

2 Cups milk
2 Cups water + 2/3 Cup dry milk powder **
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup cocoa powder
dash of vanilla and salt

Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove and heat until warm. Taste it and tweak it to your families' taste -- add more cocoa powder or sugar as needed. But watch out...you may never go back to the little packets again! This makes four generous cups of cocoa, which is about right for my crew. It's easy to adjust and make more or less depending on how many you're serving. You really can't mess this one up, and it's sooooo good!!

**You can use more powdered milk if you're running low on the real stuff...or use all regular milk if you don't have powdered. But I recommend buying a box of powdered milk -- Aldi sells it -- for a very economical cup of cocoa! And while you're at Aldi, don't forget to stock up on miniature marshmallows to top off the cocoa.

I never thought I'd enjoy winter, but I honestly do. The kids love playing outside making snow forts and sledding, and with the right snow gear, we all stay plenty warm. By the end of February, I'll be done with snow, but for now, we're all enjoying it!

Have fun stay warm!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for a good homemade hot chocolate recipe; thanks for this one! By the way, I'm good friends with Google too!

GretchenJoanna said...

I never buy the packets unless it's for a camping trip, because I like to make less-sweet cocoa for any kids that are around, and extra dark and rich cocoa for the adults. A tip regarding the latter: to bring out the chocolate flavor even more, use half water and half milk.
I found your blog because you de-lurked on Lifenut's blog.
Hi!