Longing for hot chocolate but yearning to forgo the extra calories? Check out our savior, a humble hot cocoa recipe!
Hot cocoa is nothing else but cocoa powder dissolved in milk with some kind of sweetener added. We can easily mistake a cup of hot cocoa with hot chocolate if we dissolve enough cocoa powder or not enough chocolate in our cup of milk.
To the purists though, there will be stark differences mainly because of hot chocolate provides a creamier texture due to the cocoa butter present in chocolate.
Given of course that we stick to the plain and original version that almost never happens when we don’t prepare our own. In commercial settings like ready-made drinks, powders or cafes, various thickening agents are used (like cornstarch) to please our senses while reducing production costs.
What’s in hot cocoa?
A quick look at Nesquik’s list of ingredients can reveal what can be done to find the finest balance between the two. Luckily, we don’t want to go down in that rabbit hole when we have quality ingredients at our fingertips.
Well, we only need cocoa powder and a cup of milk to make cold or hot cocoa so resourcing them won’t be a challenge. Sweetener can be used but depending on the level we are at quitting sugar, we don’t even need it.
Milk at its natural state contains enough sweetness to counter the harshness of cocoa and to make a tasty natural drink from it. Given of course that drinking cow’s milk is natural but if a rabbit can pursue us to drink chocolate flavored milk then nothing is impossible.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons / 32g Cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Vanilla extract
- 4 cups / 1000g Milk
- 4 tablespoons / 32g Corn starch (optional thickening agent)
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder (optional)
- Sweetener to taste (optional)
- Topping (optional)
How to make hot cocoa
- Measure cocoa powder, vanilla and cinnamon into a saucepan.
- Pour in a cup of milk then start heating it up while stirring continuously until there is a uniform lump free texture.
- Add the rest of the milk then heat it up to a desired temperature. Add sweetener to taste if necessary.
- Once its hot enough serve or cool it down and serve it cold.
Enjoy!
Hot Cocoa Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons Cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 4 cups Milk
- 4 tablespoons Corn starch optional thickening agent
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder optional
- Sweetener to taste optional
- Topping optional
Instructions
- Measure cocoa powder, vanilla and cinnamon into a saucepan.
- Pour in a cup of milk then start heating it up while stirring continuously until there is a uniform lump free texture.
- Add the rest of the milk then heat it up to a desired temperature. Add sweetener to taste if necessary.
- Once its hot enough serve. It’s also tasty cold.
Notes
Nutrition
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