Crock-Pot Hot Cocoa

We had a nice, long Thanksgiving break.  The older kids just went back to school today.  I'm trying to catch-up on laundry and housework and decorating for Christmas.  We do have our Christmas tree up.  The kids all helped put the ornaments on last night.  I only moved a few from the very bottom branches and decided to leave the rest how they put them.  We will see how the tree holds up over the next few weeks since we have a toddler this year.  She found some pine cones and called them "balls" and then threw them all over the room.  This influenced our decision to not put glass Christmas ornaments on the tree this year. :)

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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