Homemade Hot Cocoa

The holiday season is in full swing. Our Christmas tree is finally up! We have been listening to all of our Christmas Pandora stations, watching Christmas classics like Elf and Scrooged, and drinking tons of hot cocoa. We have five more days of school before Winter Break and I am excited to have some time to spend with my family and catch up on some rest. The last few weeks of school have been full of hustle and bustle…and a flooded classroom. Yes a flooded classroom, that sure made for an exciting end to the school week!

Christmas can be an overwhelming time because we tend to pack so much in. I am constantly reminding myself to remember what is important at this time of year. Sometimes gift giving can be stressful. Trying to decide what to get and finding time to get it can overwhelm even the most organized. I try to keep the consumerism attitude away and remember that I love gift giving! Giving gifts is one way of telling someone you care about them and appreciate them. This year, I have been so addicted to hot cocoa drinking, so I decided to share some homemade hot cocoa mix with some friends and co-workers. I packed the cocoa mix into mason jars, put a cute cupcake wrappers on top, tied the jars with twine and I loved the result. I also ate too many marshmallows in the process.

I made two different types of hot cocoa mixes and then added fun hot cocoa toppings into the mason jars. The packaging makes it look so festive and yummy! I am hoping that my dear friends use the gift to snuggle up with loved ones.

Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:

3 cups cocoa powder
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
12 ounces chocolate chips
10-12 hard caramel candies

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend. This makes mixing easy! *Note: I have a Ninja and it can handle the hard caramel candies, think about your blender capabilities, if not try a food processor.
2. Once blended put into mason jars.
Hint: I think freezing chocolate chips makes blending easier. You can also add more sugar if you want the mix to be sweeter.

Add Ins:
Mini Chocolate Chips, Marshmallows, Heath Toffee Baking Chips (very decadent!)

adapted from Seeded at the Table

White Chocolate Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:

2 cups white chocolate chips
2 cup instant dry milk
1 5.1 oz. package instant vanilla pudding

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend. This makes mixing easy!
2. Once blended put into mason jars.
Hint: I think freezing white chocolate chips makes blending easier.

Add Ins
White Chocolate Chips, Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips (found in baking aisle), and marshmallows.

adapted from Homemade Ginger