Homemade Hot Cocoa Recipe

I thought I would post a homemade hot cocoa recipe, because…

Despite the pleadings of my children, I don’t buy boxed cocoa mix. Why would I, when homemade fast, easy, much cheaper, and healthier too?

A box of a popular brand of boxed cocoa mix contains the following:

sugar, modified whey, cocoa, hydrogenated cocnut oil, nonfat milk, calcium carbonate, less than 2% of: salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglyderides, artificial flavor, carrageenan

Hmm… some of those things I just don’t want my wee ones to eat. Plus, all that packaging… with the cardboard box it comes in plus the individually wrapped servings, it’s so wasteful.

My simple homemade hot cocoa recipe:

First, grab a medium sized saucepan with a heavy bottom.

Put about a half cup of water in it and place it on medium heat. When the water starts to simmer, add:

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup Rapadura, Sucanat or coconut sugar (I use stevia for my own cocoa, and the kids often don’t notice if I make it with stevia for them!)
• couple of dashes sea salt

Let the mixture boil for a couple of minutes and stir it constantly. Then, turn heat to low and add:

• 4 cups milk of choice – non-dairy is fine here if you have sensitivities
• 1 tsp. all natural vanilla flavoring
• optional: a couple tablespoons coconut oil or butter (oh yeah!)

Let that heat until it’s as warm as you like. For little ones, I only heat it for a minute. For older kids and adults, two.

I usually dip out two cups for the little ones right away while it’s just warm, then let it heat up a minute longer for the older kids and me. The whole process from start to finish takes LESS than 5 minutes.

You can also add a dash of cayenne to the adult’s cup if you like. Did you know that a cup of hot cocoa has more antioxidants than most people eat in two days?

One more thing: If you like to drink cafe mochas, you can use a tablespoon of the cocoa/sugar mixture (before adding the milk) to a cup of strong, freshly brewed coffee, then add hot milk and skip the trip to the fancy coffee shop. The mocha powder that Starbucks uses is simply sugar, cocoa and vanilla. This powder is mixed with hot water to make mocha syrup. This syrup is pumped into the bottom of your cup, a shot of espresso added, then steamed milk. <—– former barista here talking.

I use a cheap milk frothing wand to create foamy milk for lattes and mochas.

You might also add to the main recipe, once the milk is added: a coupledrops of peppermint flavoring, orange oil, caramel flavoring, raspberry or coconut extract. I get all my extracts at Olive Nation. They have the best prices I’ve found on organic flavors and extracts.