Hot Chocolate Mix

I drank 4 cups of hot chocolate in less than 24 hours, all in the name of science! Pleased to say though that I have achieved what I believe is the perfect ratio of ingredients for hot chocolate mix. I never thought of hot chocolate from a mix as being thick, but now that I've made my own mix, I can tell it is. They must put some ingredient in the commercial mixes to thicken it up some and this doesn't have that but it's still good. I'll bet melting some marshmallows into the hot chocolate would do the trick :D I added some to hot milk and it was incredible, creamy and perfect!

To jazz it up a bit you could crush some peppermints and add it to the mix, or a bit of ground cinnamon for Mexican-ish hot chocolate, or add a couple drops of orange extract to your mug for orange hot chocolate, or stir in some mini chocolate chips for extra chocolaty goodness. Or even those nifty flavored chocolate chips! Hot chocolate with raspberry chocolate chips?! Yes, please! The possibilities are endless. It would be fun to divy the batch up into several little containers and have multiple varieties on hand.

Word of warning: I don't really think this is cheaper than buying a big canister of Swiss Miss. If you don't have any of the ingredients on hand already it's definitely going to be more expensive. It's probably not much healthier than packaged hot chocolate mix either since you're stirring in powdered creamer and Quik which are both full of mystery ingredients. But if you're into making your own mixes (which I am), it is fun and seems more special than just buying a tub o' mix and it's nice to customize it to your tastes. You could also put the mix in pint canning jars with cute little add ins like baby marshmallows, tiny candy canes and chocolate chips and have a nice little present to give someone.

A note of attribution: I looked at about 15 recipes for hot chocolate mix online and then went to town mixing stuff up. My version is far from unique as they all have similar ingredients but the proportions are different.


Hot Chocolate Mix

2 quart equivalent of powdered milk (the amount will depend on the brand you buy)
6 oz container powdered creamer

2 1/2 C Quik powder
2 C powdered sugar

1/4-1/2 C cocoa powder (optional but strongly encouraged)

Mix all together in a gallon Ziploc bag. Use the full amount of cocoa if you want it really chocolaty or no cocoa at all if you want it mild. To serve, stir 1/3 C into 8 oz hot water or milk.