Make at Home Hot Cocoa Mix

👩‍🌾yields 6 servings, ~ 1/3c / 0.72 USD each 

✅ what you’ll need to have:

⏳ time

• 5min (account for more if you’ll divide for gifting)

🧾 ingredients

⇓ volume in US cups and spoons; weight in grams

• 1c; 97g dry milk powder
• 1c; 212g granulated sugar
• ³/₄c; 72g Dutch processed cocoa powder (natural will taste slightly more acidic)
• 3tbs; 39g cocoa butter, finely chopped if mixing by hand (gives the flavor of a pricey café order; omitted, the mix tastes like Swiss Miss)
• 2tbs; 16g corn starch (thickens and stabilizes)
• 1tsp instant coffee powder (just enhances rich chocolate flavor, completely unnecessary if you’ll add coffee to the mix instead of water)
• 1tsp ground cinnamon (adds nuance to flavor and warmth to drinking experience)
• tiny pinch cayenne pepper (boosts cinnamon power)
• pinch table salt (linchpin)

🔌 equipment

• blender / food processor or mixing bowl & whisk
• air tight storage container/s and way to label (I use permanent marker and Kraft tape)

📄 what you’ll need to do:

1. blend all ingredients, layering cocoa butter amongst powders to prevent it melting on the blades
2. transfer to long-term holding vessel
3. label something like one of these
   1. Hot Cocoa Mix
      1. fill any mug ¹/₃ of the way with this mix
      2. pour in enough hot water (or coffee) to fill the mug
      3. stir
      4. sip
      5. smile
   2. Hot Cocoa Mix
      1. fill any mug ¹/₄ of the way with this mix
      2. pour in enough hot water (or coffee) to make the mug ³/₄ full
      3. stir
      4. top with whipped cream and/or marshmallows
      5. enjoy!

📝^❣️1 good to store basically forever, so I recommend multiplying recipe to as much as will fit in chosen container (if you’re a stickler for ‘best by’ labels, mark your mix according to ingredients’ soonest expiry date and make as much as you’ll drink by then)
📝^❣️2 you CAN make this without the dry milk (vegan friendly if you use organic, unrefined, beet, or coconut sugar): put a couple tablespoons of mix in the bottom of mug and stir in hot milk or hot milk alternative
📝^❣️3 no cocoa butter? maybe try substituting white, milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate and balancing the switch with less sugar and/or cocoa powder – good luck🤞 please comment below if your experiments provide knowledge worth sharing
📝^❣️4 to create mocha mix instead, increase the instant coffee powder to ¹/₄c; 21g

✨gratitude to Good Eats for inspiration✨