The best homemade hot chocolate recipe is fast, simple, and decadent. This is the perfect drink to take the chill off of a cold day!
After a cold day of playing in the snow, the kids always ask for this homemade hot chocolate recipe! It’s super easy and fast to make, which is just what you need when you’re cold and need something to warm you up!
The trick to getting a smooth homemade hot chocolate recipe is to stir, stir, and stir some more. I like to bring the liquids and chocolate up to temperature together in the pan, I think this helps everything combine and smooth out.
It’s also not necessary to boil your homemade hot chocolate. Just stir it consistently while it’s heating up and when the chocolate is completely melted and evenly dissolved and it’s as hot as you’d like it to be, you can remove it from the heat.
This hot cocoa recipe is pretty rich, so if you’d like to tone that down a bit you can replace the cream with half and half or even use a little more milk or half and half to suit your taste. Usually, I stick an ice cube in the kid’s cups so it will cool down faster, which also knocks down the richness a little bit 🙂 .
The last tip for this homemade hot chocolate recipe is the vanilla. It adds a little extra punch of flavor to the hot cocoa, but you can also switch it up and add different flavorings to suit your likes. We love a little bit of powdered cinnamon, or a drop of almond extract, even orange zest is delicious!
Just look at how much these cuties love their hot chocolate! They were patiently waiting while I took these pictures of their hot chocolate filled cups. Poor little Abram was sick when I took these photos, but he and Aspen kept begging me to snap their pictures in between shots of the homemade hot chocolate.
Their positive attitudes are always inspiring to me. He answered, “I’m doing good!” every single time I asked how he was feeling that day and at night when we talked about our “happy and sad” parts of the day, he said he didn’t have any sad parts. Cue all the tears!! What a little trooper. Being their mom is the best.
I hope you and your loved ones enjoy the best hot chocolate recipe as much as we do! Let me know in the comments if you have any particular treat you like in or with your hot chocolate. My kids love marshmallows but I’m a whipped cream gal myself.
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The Best Homemade Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
- 3 cups milk whole milk works best
- 1 cup heavy cream see note
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips see note
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips see note
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, slowly heat the milk, cream and chocolate chips.
- Stir consistently while heating, until the chocolate chips are melted and dissolved into the liquid.
- Stir until the mixture is homogenous and heated through. It isn't necessary to boil the hot chocolate unless you need it that hot.
- Off of the heat, add the vanilla.
- Serve with your favorite toppings!
Alli says
Super easy and delicious!