Print the recipe card! homemade instant hot cocoa mix
So I’m back again with another recipe (lol!).
See, I’ve got this quirk now since writing this blog. It seems that anytime I find someone claiming to have “the very best” of whatever recipe — even hot cocoa with it being a week and a half before the 4th of July– I feel compelled to test it to see if it’s true or not. So there you go, and if you can believe it I have another one to post for you next week too. {“…Hi, I’m Megan and I’m addicted to experimenting with food storage.”} Well, there are vices worse than that so I’ll take it. And this recipe was so easy I didn’t want to save it until September, that would’ve been silly. On with it!
Okay, so the bright side is that I’ve truely found the BEST homemade “just add water” hot cocoa mix! I tested it against another “best” mix just to be sure and this one indeed brought the “wows”. Everyone chose it without any hesitation, so there’s no doubt (for us) it’s our new #1. In the past I’ve been a big fan of Stephen’s hot chocolate, and never really thought about making my own mix because I’ve liked Stephen’s so much, even though it was pricey. With this mix I’m totally a homemade hot chocolate convert and I plan to use my LorAnn oils to create some fun varieties with it. The basic recipe was originally shared here and my only change was that I subbed in Heavy Cream Powder for the creamer it called for. I’m personally afraid of the ingredients listed in grocery store creamers so this is the way I was able to make it work for us.
Another thing I love about this mix is that you save SO much money by making it yourself! I’ve combined the ingredients list here with the prices just so you can see it for yourself (the printable recipe card won’t include all these details). Check out these numbers:
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Ingredients:
25 oz (11 cups) Instant Powdered Milk
(my favorite brand found here) @ 32¢/ oz. = $8.00
42 oz container (9 3/4 cups)
Nesquik Chocolate Milk Powder @ 18.9¢/ oz. = $7.69
2.5 oz. (3/4 cup) Heavy Cream Powder (@ 5 1/4 cups per 16 oz. container) $1.47/oz = $3.67
1 lb. (3 3/4 cups) Powdered Sugar @ 6.8 ¢/oz =.97¢
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To make: Combine 1/2 cup mix with 1 cup hot water.
TOTAL COST: $20.33 for 50 1/2 cup (4 oz) servings…or more than 85 oz of hot chocolate for the bargain price of .24¢/oz!
As a comparison, a box of Swiss Miss hot chocolate with 24 (.55 oz) packets — 13.2 oz in all– costs $8.24 which works out to .62¢/oz. Hello, that’s a huge savings!! And, not to offend any Swiss Miss lovers out there, but for real, this hot chocolate is a whole lot better.
So Merry Christmas in (almost) July. Save it for later if you must, but be sure and try it…you’re going to love it!
I found a substitute for the Nesquick – have you tried this? That would reduce the cost a lot more I think: http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/08/homemade-nesquik.html
Oh, wow, cool!! I haven’t seen that. Thanks for sharing, I’ll have to check it out!
Hi! Just wanted to let you know, there may be some math errors in your post. (I’m not pointing this out to be snarky; just trying to help you and your readers get a clear picture of cost per serving.)
First, your mix makes approximately 25 cups (11 cups + 9 3/4 cups + 3/4 cup + 3 3/4 cups). Each serving is 1/2 cup of mix. This means your yield on number of servings is 50 servings per batch, not 22. (25 cups/.5 cup seving = 50 servings)
Cost per batch is $20.33
Cost per serving is $0.41 ($20.33/50 = cost per serving)
Cost of Swiss Miss is $8.24 for 24 servings, which calculates to 0.34333, or just under $0.35 per serving.
So, if all things remain the same, Swiss Miss costs less per serving than the mix recipe here.
Comparing cost per ounce between the two mixes isn’t relevant, because the Swiss Miss serving size is much smaller. Now… this may indicate they’re using less ingredients for each cup of cocoa, which explains why their product isn’t as tasty as homemade cocoa mixes.
Thanks Elaine for the comment! Not snarky at all. You just looked at it from a different perspective.
First, you’re right about the servings. I got the serving number (22) from the original recipe but should have double checked it myself before posting.
The difference between the way you worked it out and the way I did is that I priced it per *ounce* and you priced it per *serving*. When you take the total cost ($20.33) and divide it by the the total ounces (85.5) the price per ounce comes out to .24¢/ounce. When you do the same with the price of the Swiss Miss ($8.24) divided by it’s total ounces (.55 x 24= 13.2) you get .62¢/ounce.
So basically, the way I was looking at it, it’s as if you were to take a box of Swiss Miss, open all of the packages and dump them into a bowl and compare that amount of product you have (divided by it’s price) to the amount in the homemade mix divided by it’s price. Per ounce it’s a lot cheaper though the serving size may vary depending on what is deemed a serving.
In grocery shopping I price compare a lot according to the prices per ounce, so it’s something I didn’t think about. You’re way is right too, it just depends on how you look at it. Sorry if it was confusing!
Hey! I was looking at your measurements and was curious on how you calculated the ounces on the powdered milk. Isn’t a #10 can of milk usually around 10-11 cups of powder? If so, wouldn’t the 3 lbs be greater than 25 oz? I was thinking that a cup of powdered milk typically is around 4 or 5 oz but then again different formulas may have different densities.
Man that sounds like splitting hairs. LOL, I guess I need to stop being lazy and weigh it on my food scale :) just curious if you erred closer to the 25 oz or the 11 cups when making the recipe. I wanted to give it a shot with mine and see which one I favored. SO excited to try regular Heavy Cream rather than creamer. Excellent suggestion!
Tiffany, I’m so sorry for the late reply! You caught me just as I was going out of town with my family on a 4 day cross country drive and I haven’t checked the computer in days.
So, I’m laughing about this post now. The original post I linked from originally had the entire recipe in ounces. Someone down in the comments had converted it to cups and I — my mistake– went with it and never compared between the two. You’re right about that, with the milk. So, long story short, this recipe is flexible. I’ll fix it so it’s right before posting the recipe card. Thanks for the good eye! :)
Megan, as promised, you are not the only crazy person posting about Instant Hot Chocolate in July. Here’s the link with the addition of pudding mix that I told you about. I tried the heavy cream instead of creamer this time and we LOVE the change. Yum. Thanks for the suggestion. Now I feel like I should have bought more than one jar… in time I’ll have a years supply I suppose!
http://helpingfamiliesthrive.com/2013/07/christmas-in-july-knock-your-socks-off-hot-chocolate-mix.html
This just caught me as funny. You are worried about the ingredients in the powdered creamer and you aren’t worried about the ingredients in Nesquick? I would be worried about both.
True :) — I guess we all have our items that bring out the red flag, while also having others that “seem” better and probably aren’t.
Thanks for giving an option for a yummy treat to make for the family.
This is not instant but a tried-and-true money saver hot chocolate recipe that I developed when I was in college over forty years ago. I heated sugar, Hershey’s chocolate and a pinch of ground cinnamon in a little water to make a syrup. I then added reconstituted powdered milk until it looked and tasted right, heated it and served by the gallon to my friends at our Baptist student center.
Great! Sounds good. Thanks for sharing that with us!
It sound yummyyyyyyyyyyyy….Easy to make.Every member of the family will like this recipe. And chocolate is very ones favorite.