Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

My kids came home from school today and they were FREEZING.  Hot chocolate was immediately what they wanted to have to help warm them up.  It's what they request after a hard day of sledding and playing in the snow, and it's clearly what is needed for the brittle drive home from school....60 degrees. 

Problem.  Ain't got no cocoa mix.

Solution.  The internet knows what I need.  I have heard tale of putting powdered milk in homemade cocoa mix, and as I happen to have some powdered milk, I wanted to use it.  Thankfully I found Alton Brown's cocoa recipe.  Click here for the delicious recipe I based my own recipe off of, and know it was just what I needed.  Minus the cayenne pepper.  I was sure my children would revolt at that one.

At first I wasn't going to post the ingredient proportions I had used, out of respect for Alton's recipe, then upon further inspection on the web, this recipe is out there in many forms, so here's my unapologetic version of it.

Homemade Cocoa Mix
1 cup Cocoa Powder
2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
3 Cups Powdered Milk
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
2 tsp. Cornstarch

Combine all the above ingredients in bowl and mix well.  Store in air tight container.

My my, isn't the powdered milk extremely...yellow.  I don't use it very often, so I was quite surprised.  One of the things I liked about this recipe is that it uses powdered sugar.  Seems to me that would dissolve much more nicely than granulated sugar.  I didn't have the Dutch Processed Cocoa Alton recommends.  Ooops!  Regular works great!

I'm on a bit of a get ready for Christmas kick today, but looking at this lovely cocoa mix, I am thinking if you gussied it up, it would make such a nice Christmas present for your neighbors.  Gonna keep that in mind myself.

It takes about 3 largish spoonfuls of mix to water ratio.  I never warm my girls' water up too hot.  Don't need a lawsuit on my hands similar to that coffee incident many years ago.  My kids are so litigious. 

The sad thing is, they didn't love Alton's version.  It has a very deep chocolate flavor.  I did like it, so I consider it a success.  I am altering it and making it more kid friendly by adding some more powdered milk and powdered sugar, both, and the proportions I ultimately used are listed above.  This gives it a more milk chocolate flavor vs. dark chocolate.  They did gobble up the marshmallows and then headed back out into the frigid wasteland known as Fall and commence trying to sell my neighbors pieces of beef jerky, one jerky piece for a dollar.  I definitely owe my neighbors some yummy cocoa mix this year.

I am expecting them back in any moment needing a way to warm themselves up....luckily I've got the solution right here in my cup.

Thanks for reading!

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