Hot chocolate mix

Ingredient prep

Happy Christmas Eve! I love me a warm mug of hot chocolate in the winter, especially if it also involves my couch, a warm blanket, and a good movie or a bad reality TV marathon. I have tried to graduate myself from Nestle and Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets (with marshmallows of course) but have not had much success. Last year I bought some organic fair trade mix that was gritty and not very enjoyable. This recipe in Cook’s Illustrated caught my fancy because it acknowledged (and tried to address) the grittiness problem.

Prepping the mason jars

I hope it’s tasty because this also became part of my holiday gifts for my coworkers. A bit risky to gift something I’ve never tried, but I do usually trust the America’s Test Kitchen folks and based on the list of ingredients, how bad could it be?

Hot chocolate mix
Makes: about 12 servings
Source: Cook’s Illustrated, November/December 2014

Ingredients
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

Voila…gift ready

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1 cup (3 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1.5 ounces) nonfat dry milk powder
5 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

To make one serving of hot chocolate
1. Heat 1 cup of milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it starts to steam and bubbles appear around the edge of the saucepan.

2. Add 1/4 cup of hot chocolate mix and continue to heat, whisking constantly, until simmering, 2-3 minutes longer.

3. Pour hot chocolate into a mug and enjoy!