Hot Chocolate Mix (that is actually good)

I recently went down a rabbit hole making Hot Chocolate mix for holiday gifts. Every recipe I tried was TERRIBLE. The only thing more annoying than making recipes just to throw them away is the amount of excessive, wordy blogs I had to scroll through to get to the recipes. So, I'm going to do things a little differently...I will first provide you with a complete recipe, and then I will proceed to the blog portion. Enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Mix

Makes: 650 grams of powder mix, 21 servings

Supplies:

kitchen scale (grams)

small bowl for measuring

2 large mixing bowls

food processor or mixer

large spoon

rubber spatula

3.5" x 5.5" zipper bags, or 2 quart size mason jars

Ingredients:

250 grams non-fat powdered milk

300 grams powdered sugar

175 grams Ghirardelli 100% unsweetened cocoa powder

4 grams corn starch

5 grams ground Himalayan sea salt

10 grams vanilla powder

168 grams Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Instructions:

Put the small bowl on the kitchen scale, set to grams, and zero out the weight. Weigh each powder ingredient individually, then add to the mixing bowl. Use the large spoon to mix the powder ingredients. Add mix to food processor or mixer and pulse until fully incorporated, scarping the sides with the rubber spatula several times. Transfer this mix to the other mixing bowl. Depending on the size of your food processor or mixer, you might have to do this in several small batches. Weigh out chocolate chips and keep them separate until ready to portion.

Portioning

Individual Servings: 21 portions

Weigh out 8 grams of chocolate chips and put them into the 3.5" x 5.5" bag. Then, weigh out 30 grams of the powder mix and add it to the bag. Repeat until all of the mix is portioned.

Bulk Servings: 2 quart mason jars

Weigh out 84 grams of chocolate chips and add to one of the mason jars. Repeat for the second mason jar. Then, weigh out 325 grams of powder mix and add to one of the mason jars. Repeat for the second mason jar. Shake jars to mix the chocolate chips with the powder mix.

Directions:

Ready to enjoy your hot choccy? Heat 8 ounces of milk and stir in 1 packet of hot choccy mix (or 6 TBS of the bulk mix). For some extra razzle dazzle, enhance with whipped cream and Peace Blends 5 Spice Blend! Holidays stressing you out? Add 2 ounces of Whipped Cream Vodka...if you are into that kind of thing.

Want to jazz it up with more flavor?

Add 5 grams of cayenne pepper and 3 grams of chili powder into the dry mix to make Spicy Hot Choccy!

Notes:

3.5" x 5.5" bags-I use unbleached sealable Kraft bags with a window (as shown in the above picture)

Ghirardelli-Let's be real for a second...Ghirardelli chocolate and cocoa powder are superior. Substituting for another brand is not recommended, as it will directly affect the final flavor.

Cocoa Powder-every recipe I read recommended Dutch cocoa. I found that I prefer the flavor of the unsweetened over the Dutch-processed.

Chocolate Chips-some recipes will suggest that you should chop the chocolate chips, whether that be by pulsing in the food processor, or placing in a zip lock bag and crushing with a meat mallet or rolling pin. I found both methods to be unsuccessful and ultimately unnecessary. The whole chocolate chips melt just fine when added to the hot milk.

Vanilla Powder-I source this from my spice wholesaler, but you can easily find retail online. Just make sure there are no other ingredients that will affect the overall flavor. Purchase a product that only contains vanilla bean and an anti-caking agent.

Mason Jar-If you are portioning in bulk into a mason jar, I highly recommend getting leak-proof plastic or wood lids to enhance the overall appearance of the final product.

Blog:

So, what brought me to this point?

First of all, my husband LOVES hot choccy. He does not drink tea or coffee (I know, right?!), so it's the one wintertime drink he indulges in. Every single time he gets hot choccy when I am getting coffee from all of the various coffee shops, he is always disappointed and barely drinks it. So this was my primary motivation.

In addition to this, my "real job" includes decorating multiple properties for Christmas. This year, we had a really solid staff that made the entire process so much more enjoyable (and a lot less stressful), so I wanted to show them my appreciation with Peace Blends gift boxes! I thought some Hot Choccy bags would be a great addition to their gift.

So I embarked on trying to find the perfect Hot Chocolate mix recipe. And boy oh boy, did I read way too many recipes and scroll through entirely too many paragraphs explaining why all of these recipes were the best. I quickly noticed that all of the recipes were basically identical, with only some slight variations on ingredient quantity. So I picked a recipe, prepared the batch of mix, heated the milk, and made a cup of hot chocolate. It was truly terrible! I added some more powdered sugar and cocoa powder and gave it another try. Still terrible. Back to the internet I went just to read hundreds more recipes that all claimed to be "THE BEST", but were remarkably similar. Bland and chalky is not what I had in mind. I ended up throwing away all of the mix.

I woke up today absolutely determined to make this work, so I set off to the store to restock on some supplies, fully knowing that Ghirardelli products were going to make all the difference. And boy was I right!

I hope that you also find this recipe as enjoyable as I do! I fully believe if you are gifting homemade this holiday season, it better be absolutely delicious, or it's not worth it. Give the gift of flavor!