Our family loves hot cocoa. It's a great treat during these chilly winter months. The kids love a cup of hot cocoa when they come in from playing outside. Last year, I made hot cocoa on Christmas morning. I enjoyed sipping it while watching everyone open presents. Here's a recipe I found that makes a little over a gallon of hot cocoa at once! And you can keep it warm in a Crock-pot for holiday parties.
Ingredients (printable recipe)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cocoa
1 1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup hot water
1 gallon milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Directions
In a large saucepan combine sugar, cocoa and salt. Add hot water slowly, mixing well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add milk; heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. DO NOT boil. Remove from heat; add vanilla and whip with a whisk. Serve hot with whipped cream or marshmallows if desired. This hot cocoa can be kept in a crock-pot for easier serving to large groups.
Source Drinks Mixer
The Results...
This recipe makes A LOT of hot cocoa. You are using a whole gallon of milk in this recipe. You could cut the recipe in half. Our family of six drank about half of this hot cocoa on a Sunday afternoon. Using a funnel, I poured the extra cocoa back into the milk container and stored it in the fridge. Then, we just shaked and poured some cocoa into a mug and zapped it in the microwave when we wanted more.
If you're planning on serving a really large group, you could even double the recipe and keep it warm in a couple of Crock-Pots. Make it fun and have all the fixin's, too, like whipped cream, candy canes and marshmallows. There are so many different flavors of marshmallows now. Last winter, we had a hot cocoa bar at a church activity. At my local grocery store I found 6-7 different flavored marshmallows like caramel, peppermint, strawberry, gingerbread, cinnamon bun and coconut to serve with the hot cocoa. A friend also made chocolate dipped spoons for extra fun and chocolatey-ness. Here's some cute chocolate dipped spoons from alphamom.com.
There's just one thing I noticed while the cocoa is in the Crock-Pot. If it doesn't get stirred often, it develops a skin on top like pudding. I just removed it. I don't know if there's a way to prevent it, any ideas?
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