Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Every year, I try to make food gifts for my friends. Last year I made Cheese and Bacon Crackers and Beef Jerky. Both very well received. In fact, someone stole my friend’s Beef Jerky from his job!

This year has been very busy, and I wanted to do something thoughtful, but easy. Hot Cocoa mix is always popular and how hard can that be? Right? Wrong! I have mixed and remixed and mixed again. Getting a mix that is creamy, chocolatey, sweet (but not too sweet) and that also dissolves was no easy task.

You are lucky I have taken all the work out of making this great gift. I purchased ½ pint mason jars for gifting. This is inexpensive and very easy.

Servings: 9 (ish) cups (That is actual measuring cups. It makes almost 70 cups of chocolate)

Hardware:  Measuring cups and spoons, a gallon storage bag, a food processor, a funnel (optional) 9-½ pint mason jars

Time: Active time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups Dutch processed Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered milk
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1.5 cups granulated sugar
• 1-5.9-ounce box of instant chocolate pudding
• 6 ounces of chocolate chips
• ½ tablespoon corn starch
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

1. Using the food processor, grind the chocolate chips as small as you can get them.
2. Mix the ground chips and all the other ingredients together in the bag.
3. Shake like crazy to mix.
4. Place ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons into each mason jar. Each jar makes about 5 cups of cocoa.

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You can personalize each jar by mixing in ONE of these:

• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper 

You can include a gift bag with each jar that includes any or all of these: a tiny bag of mini marshmallows, a mini bottle of peppermint schnapps or Kahlua, miniature candy canes, a tiny bag of crushed butterscotch or a tiny bag of crushed peppermints. Go all out and add in a mug and you have a great gift for anyone on your list.

To make the hot cocoa, shake the jar like crazy before each use. Add 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water to a mug. Then stir in 2 heaping tablespoons  of Hot Cocoa Mix. Stir until all the mix is dissolved. Top the dissolved mix with 6 ounces of hot water or steaming milk. Stir again. Then add in any of the mix-ins or top with mini marshmallows or whipped cream. Then relax and enjoy