Warm Up with Homemade Hot Chocolate | Family Economics

By Kristen Doyle

When I was a young girl, my mom went through a “let’s be as self-sustainable as we can” stage. We had a vegetable garden, chickens to lay eggs, all day canning sessions and more. She even went as far as grinding her own wheat for flour. On any given day we had fresh fruits and vegetables, farm fresh eggs and warm homemade wheat bread made from her flour.

While my mom was going through this stage, she refused to buy anything that was pre-packaged. Everything we had was homemade. She worked full-time and had 5 children, so looking back now I find her ambition to be very impressive!

One of the things I remember loving the most was my mom’s homemade hot chocolate mix. In the wintertime, she would make up a huge batch of hot chocolate mix and we would enjoy it all winter long. When friends would come over, they would always request my mom’s hot chocolate because it “was the best!”

When the colder winter months come around, I always think of my mom and her delicious hot cocoa. Even if you don’t want to make everything from scratch, I strongly suggest you give this recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix a try. It is so delicious, it will make you take a look at all of the other food in your pantry and wonder how you can manage to make it all yourself!

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix
(makes 17 dry cups of mix)

Ingredients:
- 10 2/3 cups instant nonfat powdered milk
- 6 oz container powdered nondairy creamer (to switch it up, use different flavors!)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 bag of mini-marshmallows

Combine all of the ingredients in an extra large bowl and stir to mix well. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Before each use, stir the container so that the marshmallows are well distributed.

To make one serving of hot chocolate, stir 3 tablespoons of hot chocolate mix into 1 cup of boiling water until dissolved.