This homemade hot chocolate recipe is perfect for cold days that’ll keep you warm! You need only 3 ingredients to make this delicious winter treat.
You’ll love this hot chocolate from scratch that is deliciously intense. It takes almost 5 minutes to make this easy hot chocolate.
Let’s see the 3 ingredients for this simple recipe.
Ingredients for Hot Chocolate
- Milk-I use whole milk
- Chocolate– I prefer using 64-70% cocoa. I find 80% a little bit bitter. If you want it without any bitter taste, I would suggest you use 56% cocoa. Believe me 56% cocoa is sweet enough.
- Vanilla-I use pure vanilla extract
Hot Chocolate vs Hot Cocoa
While hot chocolate calls for milk and chocolate as the main ingredients, hot cocoa calls for cocoa powder, sugar and milk.
Important Tip for Making Hot Chocolate
You should chop the chocolate into very small pieces. This is how you can make a smooth hot chocolate without any chocolate pieces. Below I’ll mention again but I just want to highlight it separately.
How to Store Hot Chocolate
It’s best to serve immediately. As it becomes ready in a short time, you can always make it fresh. If you want to make ahead, you can chop the chocolate and keep in a ziplock bag and use it when you want to make hot chocolate.
This recipe makes 2 cups but if you are making for a family and there is leftover, you can keep the cooled and covered hot chocolate in the fridge up to 3 days. You can warm it over medium heat before serving.
How to Make Homemade Hot Chocolate
First I chop the chocolate into small pieces. It is even smaller than the ones that I chop in my how to make chocolate ganache post. In the next step, I melt the chocolate with warm milk. The small chocolate pieces will melt easily in warm milk.
Then I place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it is warm, I add the vanilla extract.
Finally, I add the chopped chocolate into the warm milk and stir with a whisk over medium heat. The chocolate will start to melt before the milk starts to boil. The chocolate will totally melt as long as you chop the chocolate finely at the beginning. At this point, you can taste it, and gradually add extra milk if you find the mixture thick.
I pour the hot chocolate into glasses and serve immediately.
You can drink this hot chocolate plain or add whipped cream-grated chocolate/your choice of favorite as much as you want.
Enjoy!
You should also check my other delicious recipes with chocolate!
- Peppermint Chocolate Truffles
- Chocolate Fudge Brownies
- Double White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Candy Barks with Nuts
- Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
I love hearing from you! 
If you try my Hot Chocolate recipe or my other recipes please leave a comment and give a star rating!
Homemade Hot Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients
- 490 g (2 cups) milk
- 130 g (3/4 cup) dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate, chopped into very small pieces*
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the milk is warm, add in the vanilla extract. Add finely chopped chocolate into the milk and stir with a whisk until the chocolate melts without any chocolate pieces. You can taste it and gradually add extra milk if you find the mixture thick.
- Pour the hot chocolate into glasses. You can drink hot chocolate plain or add whipped cream and grated chocolate/ favorite of choice on top.