Easy Homemade Hot Chocolate {With Real Food}

This homemade hot chocolate — made with real food — is rich and creamy, naturally-sweetened, and free of any weird, processed ingredients. Best of all — it’s super quick and easy to make!

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A couple of weeks ago, I shared a blog post of 25 family Christmas traditions, and one of them was drinking homemade hot cocoa while looking at Christmas lights.

That’s actually one of our family’s traditions, and it’s one of our favorites! Aidan started talking about it this year as soon as the weather started to chill in the fall.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve played around with several homemade hot chocolate recipes to try to find our favorite.

I wanted something simple and easy yet with all the comforting richness of a great cup of cocoa.

I wanted something fairly creamy (because that’s our favorite kind!) yet thin enough to drink through the kids’ no-spill cups (a MUST for drinking it in the vehicle!).

And finally, while I realize that, sadly, hot chocolate will never fall within the realm of a “healthy” drink, I wanted to at least use all real food ingredients.

After playing around with a few combinations (my family did not mind that research in the least!), this is the one we liked the best.

This homemade hot cocoa recipe is rich and creamy, naturally-sweetened, and free of any weird and heavily-processed ingredients. Best of all — it’s super quick and easy to make!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Medium saucepan
Whisk

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk (I use whole, but you can use whatever you have, including unsweetened almond milk to make it dairy-free)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (You can substitute another 1/2 cup milk, if you prefer, but the cream makes it delightfully creamy)
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (start here — you can always add more at the end if you like it sweeter!)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• (Optional) 1 tsp pure vanilla extract OR 1 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:

Whisk all the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat until warmed through.

Variation:

Add 1 tsp pure vanilla extract OR 1 tsp peppermint extract (the kids and I loved this version!)

Makes 4 small servings

Print Pin

Creamy Real Food Hot Chocolate

This homemade hot chocolate — made with real food — is rich and creamy, naturally-sweetened, and free of any weird, processed ingredients. Best of all — it’s super quick and easy to make!

Course Drinks

Keyword Hot Chocolate, Real Food

Servings 4 small servings

Author Lisa Mullen

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup milk

  I use whole, but you can use whatever you have, including unsweetened almond milk to make it dairy-free

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

  You can substitute another 1/2 cup milk if you prefer, but the cream makes it delightfully creamy

• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup Add more at the end if you like a sweeter hot chocolate
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions

• Whisk all ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat until warmed through.

Variation

• Add 1 tsp pure vanilla extract OR 1 tsp peppermint extract (the kids and I love this version!)

I hope you enjoy this cozy, delicious homemade treat. Be sure to share in the comments below once you’ve tried it!

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