homemade hot chocolate

I didn't even realize I forgot to post yesterday until about 9:00 last night when I was sitting at my kitchen table covered in flour, drinking wine, and carefully measuring and cutting out pieces for gingerbread houses. :/ That's what happens when you wake up, start baking, and don't leave the kitchen all day except to go to the state store (PA anyone?) to stock up on holiday fun drinks. So to make amends, I give you two posts today. Two hot chocolatey posts. One that you drink, the second that you eat. So here goes the drinkable one. Stay tuned for the nom-able one. If you follow me on twitter, I'll post a link as soon as it's up.

I'm a sucker for the packaged Swiss Miss stuff for sure but I saw a recipe for homemade so of course I had to try it. It's really easy and a good solution if you run out of Swiss Miss like I did the other night. Get a little bit of water simmering in a pot and stir in your chocolate and sugar.


You'll get some sort of wonderful fudgey looking mix. Stir until most of the lumps are gone and stir in milk, a little at a time.



Heat the mixture until it's hot all the way through, but not boiling. Keep stirring so the chocolate doesn't settle on the bottom and burn.




Remove from heat and add your vanilla.


Give it a good stir. I then held a strainer over my giant Pyrex measuring cup (holds about 5 cups) and poured the mix in just to make sure there weren't any lumps from unmixed chocolate. This also made pouring it into mugs a lot easier.



And there you have it! Top with some whipped cream or marshmallows and enjoy.


Homemade Hot Chocolate
adapted from allrecipes

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/3 cup water
3 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, bring water to a simmer and add cocoa and sugar. Mix well, being careful not to burn. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly. Heat until hot all the way through, but not boiling. When hot, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. (Optional): Pour through a strainer to remove any chocolate lumps. Makes about four servings.

Stir with a candy cane for some minty flavor and pair with sugar cookies. Leave it out for the big man on Christmas eve ;)