The Hungry MouseHow to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix
Did you know you can make your own hot chocolate mix?
As in, grind cacao nibs to a fine powder, then mix them with milk and sugar for an out-of-this-world hot chocolate-y experience?
You can. And surprisingly, it’s not that hard. I’m going to show you how. All you need is a bag of cacao nibs, a food processor, and coffee grinder.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: This article has 3 parts
Part 1: Explains a little about cacao beans and how chocolate is made
Part 2: Shows you how to grind your own hot chocolate powder from cacao nibs
Part 3: Gives you a recipe for turning that hot chocolate powder into a luxurious hot drink
Homemade hot chocolate mix makes a fabulously thoughtful and unique holiday gift for folks you really, really like. Pack some up with a bag of gourmet marshmallows and a pair of nice mugs for a tidy little gift basket.
The final hot chocolate is fragrant with fresh, rich chocolate and flecked with small specks of ground cacao nib.
Here’s my homemade cocoa powder:
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix, Part 1: All about the cacao nib
Alright, back up, Mouse. Just what is a cacao nib, anyway?
Cacao nibs are what chocolate is made of. They’re literally little pieces of cacao bean.
For scale, here’s a cacao nib on my fingertip:
Whole cacao beans grow inside cacao pods, like these:
Here’s the inside of the cacao pod. The cacao seeds are encased in white. (Kind of gross looking, I know.)
This video gives a good, if very basic overview, of the whole chocolate-making process�from tree to market.
In recent years, cacao nibs are easier to find in stores, as foodie folks seek them out for cooking and snacking. They’re rich in antioxidents and are a really good dietary source of magnesium.
Hey word nerd, what’s the difference between “cacao” and “cocoa”?
According to Allchocolate.com, the words are kind of used interchangeably at this point.
However, “cacao” generally refers to the bean and plant, while “cocoa” refers to the powder processed from the beans. A quick check on Merriam-Webster seems to bear that out.
OK, moving on.
Part 2: How to grind your own hot cocoa
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: Get to the hot chocolate already
Yep, yep. Here you go. You’ll need to start with a bag of cacao nibs.
I found my 4 oz. bag of Navitas Naturals Organic Raw Cacao Nibs at Whole Foods for $5.45. If you can’t find them in person, Navitas also sells them online.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: The basic ratio for my hot chocolate mix
My 4 oz. bag of cacao nibs yielded 1 cup of ground cocoa powder.
I use a ratio of 1 part cocoa powder to 2 parts sugar to make my hot chocolate mix. That means that this bag will give me 3 cups of hot chocolate mix.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: Important tips for grinding
- In order to reduce the cacao nibs to a powder, you have to grind them a few times�first in a food processor, then in a coffee grinder.
- Don’t try to grind them to a powder using only a food processor. Trust me. I learned from experience that that’s a great way to burn out the motor in your Cuisinart.
- When you’re grinding cacao nibs, heat is your enemy. That means that you need to process them fast, before the heat from the motor of your food processor liquifies the fat in the nibs and gums up your blade. If you see this start to happen, stop and wait til your machine cools.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: Grind your cacao nibs in a food processor
Grab your cacao nibs and put them in the bowl of your food processor.
Pulse the blade for a minute or two to break them up. Your goal is to cut them into much smaller pieces.
Stop when they look about like this:
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: Next, grind your cacao nibs in a coffee grinder
Transfer a few spoons of these smaller cacao nibs to your coffee grinder.
Grind them in the coffee grinder for maybe 15-20 seconds, then take a peek. Keep grinding them in small bursts until they’ve broken down into a powder, like this:
You’ll notice that, while it’s a powder, the pieces are still kind of coarse. That’s just fine. That’s why you’re going to grind them again (and even a third time, if you like) in a few minutes.
Transfer the powder to a bowl.
If there’s any powder stuck in the bottom of your grinder, just knock it loose with a spoon. Repeat this process until you’ve ground all the nibs to a powder.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix: Grind the coarse powder again
When you’re done with this first batch, grind the coarse powder again in the coffee grinder.
You need to do this in stages like this, to keep the cocoa powder from getting too hot, liquifying, then solidifying.
As it is, you should notice that there’s a little bit of solid cocoa powder inside your grinder. Just knock it off with a spoon and grind it back to a powder.
Keep grinding the powder like this until it’s very fine.
When you’re done, you should have about a cup of cocoa powder.
Keep the cocoa powder in an airtight container.
How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix, Part 3: Homemade hot chocolate recipe
This is my basic hot chocolate recipe. Here are some ideas for embellishing it:
+Add a pinch of ground cinnamon
+Garnish with a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream and top with chocolate shavings
+Add a shot or two of bourbon, Kahlua, or chocolate liquor
Rich and Creamy Homemade Hot Chocolate
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbls. homemade cocoa powder
2 Tbls. sugar
whipped cream or homemade creme chantilly
Set a medium sized saucepot on the stove over medium heat. Add the milk, cream, and vanilla extract to the pot.
Toss in the cocoa powder and whisk to combine.
Add the sugar.
Whisk to combine. Raise the heat to medium-high to bring to mixture up to a simmer.
Whisk constantly as it cooks. This will keep your milk from scorching and will also incorporate lots of air into your hot chocolate.
Once it starts to bubble, simmer it for a minute or two, whisking all the time. Your finished hot chocolate will most likely have little flecks of cocoa powder floating in it, like this:
These little bits of cocoa powder aren’t hard at all and actually add an extra nice chocolate-y flavor and texture to the hot chocolate. That said, if you aren’t keen on drinking them, you can certainly pour your hot chocolate through a strainer into a mug.
Don’t be fooled by the lighter brown color. This hot chocolate is packed with insanely intense chocolate flavor.
After a minute or two, turn the heat off and take your pot off the burner. You’re ready to serve!
Pour your hot chocolate into a mug.
Top with whipped cream. Serve and enjoy!
***
Copyright 2008-2009 The Hungry Mouse�/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.
25 Comments on “How to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix”
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Great post Jessie! Very imformative!
amazing post! These are my favorites of your posts… different, informative, educational and yummy
Thanks sweetie!
I’m off to go salsa dancing, but this looks awesome (no time to read the whole thing)
I personally think whipped cream is the best part!
This is awesome!!! Looooooove it!
great post! so informative and helpful
and the pictures are lovely. i love hot cocoa!!
Hehe, thanks guys! If you like to experiment in the kitchen, this is a really fun project for the holidays.
+Jessie
Hi Jessie!
OMG, this is the sweet post that makes me craving all the pictures at the screen..very delicious and informative post!!
Dear Jessie I’ve an award waiting for you at my blog…please stop by when you get a chance
Gera .:. sweetsfoods
I think I may have been treated to some of that homemade hot chocolate mix many moons ago. Miss you!
This was a great post! I learned a lot. I can only imagine how amazing that cup of hot chocolate was! I also like your site’s new format, especially the visual archive. Very cool:)
I think you have just convinced me to go get a food processor AND a coffee grinder (we are all non-coffee drinkers at home so naturally no coffee grinder) just to make my own cocoa powder.
Great post!
Oh, don’t you think for one second that I am not about to move in with you !!!!!
This looks like my version of heaven, all wrapped up in a big red bow!
The cocolate nibs I ground in my coffee grinder came out more like a coarse chocolate paste with some natural oils in it than a powder. Am I using different nibs?
Thanks, all!
Kerry–Hmm, did you use the same brand that I did? (If not, which ones did you get?)
From the sounds of it, I’m guessing that your nibs got too hot from the heat of the coffee grinder motor. That’s why I grind them in small batches. (Heat will draw out and liquify the cocoa butter from the nibs, and make the chocolate-y paste that it sounds like you got.)
You should be able to scrape that paste out, though, let it cool, then grind it up. If it’s cool enough and you do it bit by bit, it should work. Give a shout and let me know how it turns out.
+Jessie
Thank You for writing back Jesse.
The brand was Mountain Rose Herbs. The nibs were organic Cacao Nibs (Theobroma cacao). I originally saw a video of a chocolatier making a basic chocolate with his coffee grinder. He ground it until it was a paste. He added flavorings and sweeteners to it then ate it. That must be what you are talking about when it gets heated from the grinding.
Maybe I need a different grinder. I never get powder before I get paste. I’d like to grind the nibs and store the powder in the frig for a couple more cups. Are there any grinders that do more at a time without heating up things?
I bought a twin gear Green Star juicer which is known to not generate heat in order to preserve the nutrients in the juice. It grinds nuts into nut butters. I’m wondering if it would make a powder from the cacao nibs or a paste.
Since I didn’t get powder, I mixed the chocolate paste with some organic cocoa butter and a smidge of coconut oil. I add powdered sugar to taste and added walnuts and raisins. I didn’t get cocoa powder but boy what a great chocolate treat in the end! No risk of Chinese melamine either. Hard to clean the coffee grinder though.
Maybe I should put the paste into the cocoa. It’s going to get heated anyway. I use raw milk with it’s cream so the oils in the chocolate would probably combine with the fats in the milk.
Sincerely,
Kerry
would a vitamix work just as well as a coffee grinder for the last stage? Thanks!
Pettez–I’ve never used a vitamix, but you could certainly try it! I’d start with a really small batch and see what happens. The first time I did this, I used my Cuisinart food processor for the whole thing, and it literally overheated on me. So definitely be careful. You don’t want to break your equipment. But let me know how it goes!!
+Jessie
Why is better to go this way rather than buying the Navitas cacao powder?
Fabulous page, Jesse! What about roasting the beans though?
The information about grinding the cacao nibs is really informative. I now need to buy a coffee grinder! Tried using just the food processor before reading this and realised that it wasn’t going to work on its own.
I’m going to use the nibs, once powdered to make some tasty snacks for my clients to try as I’m a Nutritional Therapist.
I used a vitamix to do this and it worked just fine. I actually just put a cup or so of nibs in and ground a bit, unstuck the bits, ground a bit, unstuck the bits….etc a few times and then made it into hot chocolate. Add a bit of cold brewed coffee concentrate and you’ve got a lovely mocha. My husband is drinking it right now and is very satisfied.
This was really, really helpful information that I’m going to bookmark. Some friends just gave me two cacao fruit. Not just nibs. The whole fruit. So I’m trying to understand what to do with them. Once I’ve dried and roasted the beans, I’ll be using your information to make the hot chocolate. Thanks for posting.
Thanks Jessie! I bought some nibs to snack on yesterday and didn’t like them. Today is a miserable rainy day in London and I fancied some hot chocolate and I thought about the nibs… From google to mug in 15 minutes flat!!!
I’d kept the nibs in the fridge (Booja-Booja’s in case any one is interested) so they were cold anyway, and after pulsing them in short sharp bursts for about 5 minutes in my coffee grinder, I added the sugar and also some cinnamon, nutmeg and chili, before grinding them again. By the time it was beginning to clump in the middle, it had ground down to a powder, and no problem with either the motor, or cleaning the grinder.
I literally found your blog a quarter of an hour ago and I’m already one mug down of the most delicious hot chocolate ever. YUM!
Is it really that easy to make hot chocolate? I have about 50 lbs of nibs. How long does the nibs last?
Hi, what a wondeful article! Thank you so much for that delicious recipe. I am a distributor for Choffy and this is a wonderful addition in making a good cup of chocolate. For all your cacao nibs visit my site. CHOFFY has been featured on Dr. Oz, Oprah Magazine and Food Network. To order yours visit: http://www.drinkchoffy.com/tsokolate
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