Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe
This homemade hot chocolate mix recipe is stupendously easy to make-you can make dozens of gift jars in just a few minutes-and who doesn't love a cozy mug of hot cocoa on a winter's day? The resulting hot cocoa is dreamy, creamy and packed with rich chocolate flavor-this isn't your run-of-the-mill grocery store packets!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe
- ⏱ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 🍫 Flavor Profile: Rich, creamy, comforting hot cocoa.
- 🎄 Good For: Easy gifts for teachers and neighbors, and mugs of hot cocoa that are tastier than the instant stuff.
- 🎁 Gift It: This is one of my easiest Christmas food gifts (right up there with my cookie mix in a jar and gingerbread cookie mix). One batch makes enough for 3 pint jars!
- 🧡 Difficulty: All you gotta do is whisk!
"I made this last night and packaged up two jars to gift. Then I made a couple of mugs so we could try it, and it was delicious! Thank you so much for this quick and easy Christmas gift!"
- KRISTEN -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hi friend: Give the gift of a mug of cozy with this stupendously easy DIY hot cocoa mix!
I first made this hot cocoa mix for a PTA event at my daughter's school. I setup a hot chocolate bar for 60 teachers with a giant container of this mix so they could make hot cocoa on demand. The number of emails I got the next day begging for the hot cocoa mix recipe was wild-tons of teachers told me it was the best hot chocolate they'd ever had!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Super easy to pull together: Have a bowl and a whisk? Then you can make this mix. We're talking just a few minutes here!
- My secret ingredient: There is a secret ingredient that makes this hot chocolate extra luscious and rich. Shhhh, it's mini chocolate chips!
- A great gift: This makes an easy and affordable holiday gift (try gifting this + homemade vanilla or homemade peanut brittle for a delicious bundle), but it also makes a great pantry staple for easy-peasy hot chocolate in your own home when you don't need a whole crockpot of hot chocolate.
- Kitchen-tested and family-approved: I've personally made this exact hot chocolate recipes for dozens of folks (including all those teachers!) to rave reviews. You can trust this recipe.
🍫 The Ingredients You Need
- Powdered sugar: Works way better than granulated sugar in this recipe because it dissolves super fast.
- Mini chocolate chips: The secret ingredient that makes this the best hot cocoa mix ever are mini chocolate chips! The chocolate chips melt and make your cocoa super decadent and rich. Make sure to grab mini chocolate chips-the standard-size ones don't typically melt fast enough to combine into the hot chocolate mix.
- Dried milk: Dried milk powder means that the hot chocolate from this mix is creamy and rich whether you make it with milk or water.
- Cocoa powder: Dutch-processed cocoa powder is the way to go here if you can, though regular cocoa powder works as well. I tested both, and the Dutch-processed kind makes a richer, darker, less acidic hot chocolate.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Switch the chips: Feel free to experiment with your mixture of chocolate chips in your mix. Peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips (like in my pumpkin white hot chocolate), and peppermint baking chips are all delicious additions!
- Specialty flavors: Add cinnamon, espresso, or vanilla powder for a different flavor of hot cocoa. I recommend trying 1 tablespoon of flavoring powders to start with and making a test mug. You can always add more, but it's impossible to take it away.
- Make it vegan: Swap out the dried milk for dried coconut milk, and make sure to grab chocolate chips that are dairy-free. I used dried coconut milk in my Golden Milk Mix with great results!
- Make a mocha: Mixing hot chocolate mix with coffee is a delicious way to make a shortcut recipe for peppermint mocha or salted caramel mocha.
- Spike it: Add a splash of Irish cream or homemade coffee liqueur for a grown-up mug of hot chocolate.
🥣 Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe How-To
Step 1: Your only actual job: whisking. In a large bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, dried milk, cocoa powder, salt, and mini chocolate chips. This is also the time to add any flavorings you want-vanilla powder, espresso powder, mint chips, and ground cinnamon are all fun options!
Step 2: Store the mix in an airtight container. I like to spoon it into a pretty canning jar. Each batch of mix will make enough to fill three pint jars.
Step 3: Add a tag and ribbon, if you'd like. If you're gifting the mix (or if you just want it to look fancy in your pantry), add on the free printable tag I made and some nice ribbon.
Step 4: Make up a mug of hot chocolate. To make a mug of hot chocolate: combine ½ cup mix with ¾ cup of hot water or milk in a mug, stir well until frothy and well-combined. I highly recommend using whole milk for the ultimate creamy experience! An immersion blender or frother can also help make a really frothy mug of hot chocolate!
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🙋🏻♀️ Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe FAQs
The trick to rich, creamy hot chocolate is to use actual chocolate in addition to cocoa powder. I use this trick in my peppermint hot chocolate and red wine hot chocolate as well!
Easy peasy! To make a mug of hot chocolate: combine ½ cup mix with ¾ cup hot water or milk in a mug, and stir until frothy and well-combined.
Since all the ingredients are shelf-stable, in a tightly sealed container your hot cocoa mix will last indefinitely, but I recommend checking in every six months to make sure it still is fresh. Keep some on hand for easy gifting!
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Stay small: Mini chocolate chips will work better than regular. They melt so much faster!
- No canning: While the recipe will last indefinitely in the pantry, it is not a canning-safe recipe. Do not try to process this hot chocolate mix in your water bath or pressure canner.
- Keep the powder: Don't try to sub other kinds of sugar for the powdered sugar. Powdered sugar is fine enough to dissolve well while mixing up your cocoa.
- Make it pretty: You can put your hot chocolate mix into any kind of covered container. Some folks like to use candy bags, but I love the simplicity of packing the mix into pint jars. To make it easy for you, I made free prntable tags that you can download and tie to your jars with a simple red ribbon!
📥 Download the Free Labels
I've made you some free labels for your hot chocolate mix jars that you can print off at home. Just fill out the form below to get them delivered right to your inbox.
🎁 More Easy Food Gift Recipes:
If you tried this hot chocolate mix recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Hot Chocolate Mix
Ingredients
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups dried milk whole is preferred, but nonfat works
- 1 ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder Dutch-processed preferred
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer to an airtight container and store for up to 6 months.
- To make a mug of hot chocolate: combine ½ cup mix with ¾ cup of hot water or milk in a mug, stir well until frothy and well-combined.
Video
Notes
- To package for gifting, pour the mix into Ball® Canning's 16 ounce Jar. Print out our gifting tags, and tie onto the jar with ribbon, string, or raffia. This recipe makes enough for 3 pint-size jars.
- Water works fine for this, but to make an even creamier mug of hot cocoa, use hot milk.
- An immersion blender or frother can help make a really frothy mug of hot chocolate!
- To make this vegan, swap out the dried milk for dried coconut milk, and make sure to grab chocolate chips that are dairy-free.
- Regular cocoa powder works here, but in our tests, we preferred the flavor of making the mix with Dutch-processed cocoa powder. It had a richer flavor, darker color, and less of the acidic bite that can sometimes come from cocoa powder.
- Optional (but delicious!) add-ins: vanilla powder, espresso powder, mint chips, or cinnamon.
I was gifted a jar of the BEST hot chocolate mix as a kid and it took years to figure out what was different about it...it was the dried milk! This recipe makes a mug that tastes just like that cocoa from my childhood, so now I can make it all the time!
Great gift idea
Tasty!! Can't wait to give it out as gifts and try out some variants.
I found my recipe didn't make 3 pint jars, I got 1.5 pint jars per batch and ended up doing 3.5 batches.
To be fair I weighed my ingredients so maybe some of them were supposed to be packed in?
Super tasty and so easy and i can't wait to give it as gifts this holiday season!
Yay! Thanks for letting us know how it went, Sam. We're glad you love it and hope your giftees love it, too!
How much of this mixture would you add to coffee for a mocha?
Hi Gracie! We recommend making a mug as written to start (according to the instructions in the recipe card), and just swapping in coffee instead of the water or milk. Then you can always adjust from there to add more or less mix to suit your tastes!
Hi Cassie,
I made this last year and it was a Hit! I wanted to try and add cinnamon and vanilla powder this year. How much of each should I use? Thank you!
Hi Latoya! We're so glad to hear this was a hit last year! Hopefully you figured out an amount that works for you, but we usually recommend adding any extras to taste. A good place to start is 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (depending on how strong it is) and then adjusting from there. If you find an amount you love, please let us know!
How many servings per jar does this make?
Hi Shelby! Each pint jar holds two cups of mix and you use 1/2 cup of mix per mug of hot cocoa. So each jar has 4 servings!
Will semi-sweet mini choc. chips work? That is all that I have been able to find.
Thank you!
Hi Billie! Yes—mini semi-sweet chips work perfectly in this mix!
Thanks for sharing! How far ahead of time can I make it?
This looks so good! What a great gift to make for friends or to enjoy yourself!
Hello, I'm going to put these together soon hopefully. How much cinnamon would you suggest, in the whole mix or individual jars.
I have some hot chocolate lovers that I'm sure are going to love this! Thanks.
Hi, Cyndi! If you want to add cinnamon to the mix, we recommend you add it to the entire batch so that it will get evenly distributed. We haven't tested it ourselves, but we recommend starting with 2 teaspoons for a light cinnamon flavor or up to 2 tablespoons for a strong cinnamon punch. You'll have to play around to find the perfect amount for your tastes. Let us know how it turns out for you!
I made this last night and packaged up two jars to gift. Then I made a couple of mugs so we could try it and it was delicious! I'm having the labels printed now and can't wait to put it all together. Thank you so much for this quick and easy Christmas gift!
We're so glad you like it, Kristen! Thanks for taking the time to come back and tell us about it. We really appreciate it!
Hi Cassie,
I wanted to make a homemade hot chocolate mix for gifting, & like your recipe. I have not made it yet.
Question: I bought Cacao powder to make it with. I see Dutch process is preferred. Will Cacao powder work as well?
Thank you,
Kathie
Hi, Kathie! Cacao powder will work, but it may affect the overall sweetness and flavor a bit. If you've made hot cocoa with cacao powder before and you know you like the flavor, then it should work out well for you. If you've never made it with cacao before, we recommend mixing up a single mug of hot cocoa using the cacao to see how you like it. You may find that the cacao has more bitterness to it than regular unsweetened cocoa. In that case, you'll want to add more sugar to the mix. If you like it as is, then the recipe will work as written. I hope this helps! Let us know how it turns out for you =)
How much vanilla bean powder would you recommend adding?
Hi, Tracey! We recommend adding a tablespoon of vanilla bean powder to the batch. That's a great place to start and then once you've tasted it, you can always make adjustments to future batches to suit your tastes. Let us know how it turns out for you!