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Homemade cocoa hot chocolate

Homemade Hot Chocolate from Cocoa Powder

Made from simple ingredients, incredibly rich, a little treat any day of the week! This homemade hot chocolate from cocoa powder comes together fast and easy. A touch of starch makes it thick, velvety, and wonderfully fragrant. Treat yourself to a cup on a cold fall or winter evening!

Julia M.

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Cocoa powder

Heavy cream

350

Water

Cornstarch

Sugar

Cinnamon (optional)

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 7 % 3 g

Fats 62 % 28 g

Carbohydrates 31 % 14 g

322 kcal

GI: 36 / 0 / 64

Cooking method

Cooking time: 10 min

Step 1:

How do you make homemade hot chocolate from cocoa powder? Gather your ingredients. Use natural, unsweetened cocoa here, an instant drink mix like Nesquik won't work. The cream can be whatever fat content you like. For the starch, either potato or cornstarch works; if you use cornstarch, use twice as much. In a small saucepan, whisk together the cocoa and starch.
Step 2:

Add the cold water to the saucepan and stir until the cocoa and starch are evenly blended. Set the pan over low heat and warm the mixture, stirring constantly, until it's smooth and the ingredients have dissolved.
Step 3:

Pour in the cream and keep heating, stirring constantly.
Step 4:

Add the sugar. Bring the mixture up to a boil, stirring the whole time so nothing scorches on the bottom.
Step 5:

Let the hot chocolate cook for about a minute after it reaches a boil.
Step 6:

Pour the drink, piping hot, into your prepared mugs and dig in. A handful of mini marshmallows is a lovely finishing touch, the heat of the drink starts to melt them and it tastes even better. Enjoy!

Hot chocolate dates all the way back to the ancient Aztecs. Back then it was served bitter and cold, and only to people of high rank. They ground cacao beans into a paste, mixed in spices and water, and whipped the liquid until it foamed. The drink was called "chocolatl," or "foam water," which is where the word chocolate comes from. This kind of elegant drink is easy to make at home. The flavor really depends on the cocoa, so this isn't the place to cut corners on quality. If you're watching calories, you can use milk in place of the cream. For extra aroma, add a cinnamon stick or a couple of star anise pods while it cooks, just be sure to fish them out before serving. For a grown-up version on a cold night, splash in a little rum or brandy, it will warm you right up after a cold autumn wind. For kids, skip the alcohol, of course, but they'll happily scoop the melting, stretchy marshmallows out of their mugs.
The cream for this recipe can be any fat content, but keep in mind that the richer the cream, the higher the calorie count of the finished drink.
You can swap the sugar for a heat-stable sweetener.
For the best flavor, use filtered or bottled water with a neutral taste. Tap water can sometimes give the drink an off, characteristic flavor.