Here is a recipe for home made hot cocoa made from scratch with really good cocoa powder, milk and pure maple syrup. It is so much better than making hot chocolate from a packet, and it is sweetened naturally with the best sweetener on the planet!
March and April on our hill means sugaring parties and hours spent outdoors in cold temps. To warm up chilly little ones, I make a pot of this dark hot chocolate and keep it hot on the camping stove.
This is our first season sugaring in an actual sugar house. And it has been so nice to have a propane stove (meant for canning purposes) right there to set this on.
Note: Though the cocoa powder masks any subtle maple flavors, at this time of year we are flush with syrup, and it wouldn’t be right to use anything but our own liquid gold to sweeten it up!
Sugaring Season Dark Hot Chocolate
Sugaring Season Dark Hot Chocolate, This recipe is excerpted from my cookbook, Maple: 100 Sweet and Savory Recipes Featuring Pure Maple Syrup {Quirk Books, 2015}
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup best quality cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup Little Hill Sugarworks Pure Maple Syrup dark robust
- 2 1/2 cups low fat milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
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Whisk cocoa and maple syrup in a medium bowl. Heat milk in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring often, until steaming, about 8 minutes. Pour hot milk into the cocoa mixture, whisking constantly. Transfer the cocoa mixture into the saucepan and return to the heat. Heat, stirring often until completely smooth and steaming hot. Stir in vanilla before serving.
Recipe Notes
Makes 3 cups. Active Time: 10 minutes. Total Time: 10 minutes.