Drinks/ Homemade Edible Gifts/ Lenten/ Recipes/ Various/ Vegan/ Vegetarian

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Who would say no to a cup of warm milk with rich chocolate flavor? The recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix arose from my love of chocolate itself. When I was writing the post for the nutritional information of cacao nibs I was wondered if there are any recipes on the internet and I did a little research. To my surprise, apart from a few exceptions, most of the recipes I found were far from “homemade” and “healthy”. This puzzled me and led me to the subject of today’s post.

Why making homemade hot chocolate mix?

One reason why I started this blog is because I realized how false are some processed foods, which load us with “empty” calories that have no nutritional value, and saturated and trans fats. The limited free time and responsibilities of everyday life, lead us to quick and easy solutions to our daily diet, and not only. More and more often, we buy ready-made foods to make our lives easier. This is not necessarily bad, as long as we are properly informed and know what we buy. This is why we must carefully read the labels on food packaging, noticing their components. Those watching the blog through social networks have seen that very often I post articles by experts who give advice on what to pay attention into food labels. Those who have not read a related article, you will find useful information here.

But this is not enough. We all have to learn to distinguish what is really a healthy and “clean” product of all those offered to us. In my research for finding recipes for hot chocolate mix, I discovered that most of them contain instant chocolate pudding mix, and / or milk powder, coffee cream powder and instant vanilla pudding mix. And well, milk powder I come to understand, but the ready mix for pudding?? Why bother and not buy the store bought chocolate mix to get over with? It goes without saying that none of this is healthy and, in my view, none of these mixtures can be called “homemade”. So we must be very careful in what recipes we choose to feed ourselves and especially our children.

A few words about the recipe

My recipe is based on the one I found here. This article explains the use of corn flour in the recipe, which helps to avoid caking in the mixture and it gives a smooth, rich and creamy outcome. In the same post I found that in order to avoid the chocolate melting, it’s good to put it in the freezer for 15 minutes before use. I tried it and it works!

Instead of store bought cocoa, I used ground cacao nibs, with which I am suffering a recent obsession! You can do the same, or, use raw unprocessed organic cocoa.

In the list of ingredients I also give you ideas to make your chocolate even more interesting. You can use the same ingredients by adding them at the time you make your hot chocolate, adjusting dosages. If you have any other ideas please do tell me!

The nutritional information at the end of the recipe is calculated with cow’s milk with 2% fat. It goes without saying that you can use whatever milk you want (almond milk, soy, etc.) which will suit your dietary habits.