Homemade Hot Chocolate

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Today we are going to be making the best, most delicious homemade hot chocolate from scratch. It’s that classic hot chocolate that brings you comfort, that is soothing, that is so rich creamy and delicious. It is food for the soul. I’m Allison with Simple Fantastic Kitchen. Thank you for joining me in making this wonderful recipe. Let’s get started.

Homemade Hot Chocolate | Recipe

The first thing we’re going to do is set our cook top to a very low temperature. I’m using an induction cooktop for this recipe, but if you are using a gas cooktop, set it to simmer. 

In a small pot or saucepan, we’re going to start by adding two tablespoons of half and half.

I recently had a member of the Simple Fantastic Kitchen Community from another country reach out to ask me “What is this thing you call half and half?”, which I found very charming!

For those of you not in the United States, Half and Half is a product we can buy off the shelves that is made up 50% whole milk and 50% cream. Feel free to substitute 100% cream for this part if you’d like. 

Then we’ll add two heaping tablespoons of semi sweet chocolate morsels. We are just going to try to completely melt and blend the semi sweet chocolate morsels.

So now we’re going to put the milk in. That is one cup of whole milk. You can use any milk that you want but my recommendation is you use 2% or higher as that will be the richest tasting.

You just keep combining it until everything is completely blended. Now you’re going to add in a dash of pure vanilla extract which is roughly 1/8 to 1/16 a teaspoon. It is so little. It’s just enough just to get a nice taste going but not too too much to be overpowering.

Next we add in 1 tablespoon of granulated white sugar. Now, we add in 1 tablespoon of brown sugar now. Stir that all in.

Once it starts to combine really nicely, we add in our last ingredient, which is two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder. You can also substitute cacao powder here if you’d like.

By the way we are making one serving right now so if you want to make a batch for four people, adjust the recipe amounts times four. Also, the recipe card below allows you to adjust the recipe amount to as many servings as you’d like and it will automatically adjust the ingredient amounts for you. 

The semi sweet morsels should be entirely melted by the end of this process. But if you find melty chocolate bits in your drink at the end and this isn’t something you enjoy you can always strain the hot chocolate into your 10 oz mug.

Now we want to stop heating the mixture before it starts to boil, which milk will want to do when it gets too hot.

Now get a beautiful mug and pour in the hot cocoa.

Homemade Hot Chocolate | Toppings

For presentation, style and taste, I like to add some delicious toppings to my hot chocolate. First I cover the top with whipped cream piled high. Then I drizzle chocolate sauce on top. You can use store bought whipped cream, or you can use my 3 ingredient homemade whipped cream that is so easy to make. Click here for the recipe:

Homemade Whipped Cream | Simple Fantastic Kitchen 

Homemade Hot Chocolate | How Does It Taste?

This looks absolutely delicious. But how does it taste?

That is so good. It’s everything you want it to be. It’s comforting. It’s soothing. It’s rich. It’s creamy. It’s absolutely delicious. Not to sound corny, but to me, it tastes like home. 

Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you enjoy this Homemade Hot Chocolate as much as I do!