Homemade Hot Chocolate

A delicious cup of hot chocolate is fine way to celebrate a beautiful winter day.

When I was young my mother taught my siblings and I how to make our own from scratch.

We would come in from skating or sledding, peeling off layers of winter wear, and couldn’t get in the kitchen fast enough to make our hot chocolate.

Back then we used cocoa powder, sugar and milk. Marshmallows if we had them.

I carried on the tradition with my family but we used mostly vegan milks (soy, oat) and occasionally raw cows’ milk.

We switched maple syrup (or honey or rice syrup) for the sugar.

The kids and I had many treasured days of fun in the snow followed by steaming yummy homemade hot chocolate.

A few things to note: Not all of the vegan milks taste the same. I tested this recipe with original unsweetened varieties. Some (like almond and hemp milk) seemed to have a milder flavor as an end result. Oat milk worked constantly well.

For cows’ milk – fresh local raw milk was by far the best tasting hot chocolate. Fresh local whole milk also had good results.

For Chai Hot Chocolate you could buy chai concentrate to add instead of making chai tea. I opted not to because of the high sugar content of the mixes. But the chai flavor is milder using home made chai tea.

For fun I sometimes use a cinnamon stick as a stirrer.

I hope you can take a minute, relax, and just simply enjoy the moment.

Here is the recipe we have used.