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The Even Better Best Cocoa Mix Batch Recipe

One of the things I love about cooking from scratch is that I can customize recipes to my own preferences.  For instance, hot cocoa mix.

For a long time, I would just go to the store and buy the biggest can of cocoa mix I could find at the best price per ounce.  I really didn't think it had the best flavor, and I knew it was totally overloaded with sugar, but what else to do, right?

Silly girl, how difficult can it be to stir up a mix myself?  In fact, I can remember visiting my great-grandmother's house and she did have a big jar of cocoa mix in her kitchen.  Standard breakfast for the little kids was cocoa and toast....  still a favorite of mine.

So, once again, I turned to the internet and started searching hot cocoa recipes... holy smokes, who knew there were so many variations.  First I had to work out the difference between hot cocoa and hot chocolate.  Yes, there is a difference and I'll save that for another post.  And then I had to find a simple, basic hot cocoa recipe. Finally, I found one and it became my standard:  3 c of instant, full cream powdered milk, 2 c of powdered sugar, 1 c of cocoa powder (not to be confused with cooca mix, cocoa powder is found in the baking aisle), and 2 tsp of corn starch ( thickens and makes the cocoa creamier).  Mix it all together.  Dump 1 scoop (from the aforementioned can of cocoa mix) into a mug.  Add water.  Stir.  Yum.

And then, the other day, some facebook friends were sharing their hot cocoa recipes, and one in particular caught my eye:  3 c of instant, full cream powdered milk, 1 c of powdered sugar, 1/2 c of cocoa powder and 3 tsp of corn starch.  hmmmm    Less sugar (yea!)  Less cocoa (not sure)  More corn starch (to make it thicker and creamier Yea!!)  Let's try it!

I mixed it up this morning and OH MY GOSH...  YUMMMMM    It was definitely thicker and richer.  The cocoa flavor came right through.  I top it off with about 1/4 cup of full cream milk to cool it down.

So now my recipe card is called Even Better Best Hot Cocoa Mix (batch)

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