Last winter I developed a hot cocoa recipe and tinkered with it a bit. This winter I’ve been streamlining it a bit more.
Today I wanted a cup of hot cocoa but noticed that we were running low on milk. Then I remembered the dry milk powder in the cupboard. Like the cocoa powder I use, this doesn’t have to be particularly nice or expensive. The box was an old dusty box of storebrand nonfat dry milk powder; not what I’d like to drink as milk but it does ok in baked goods. And apparently in hot cocoa!
Hot Cocoa on a Budget
- 1/3 cup dry milk powder
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa (natural or dutch process)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
- Dash of salt
- 1/4 tsp almond or vanilla extract
- Boil water, and while the kettle is on, combine dry ingredients in a mug.
- Half-fill mug with hot water and stir vigorously until all the dry ingredients have dissolved.
- Fill mug with hot water and add liquid flavoring.
If you used vanilla sugar, you could store this mix in a jar. It would be a great gift for a coworkers or teachers. Then you would use 1/2 a cup of mix for each mug of hot cocoa.