Pantry Basics: Make your own Cocoa Mix

My kids love hot cocoa - as I'm sure a million others do - so it's nice to have hot cocoa mix on hand, especially in winter or when camping. I used to buy the mixes at the store until I started reading ingredient labels. Have you ever looked to see what's in those mixes? I was shocked at the length of the list, so I did some research to find a recipe that would be as easy to make and mix as the store-bought kind. My search led me to this Farm Journal Country Cookbook:

(This was before the internet!). This book belonged to my husband's Kansas grandmother and it's well-used with the binding coming apart in places. It was first published in 1959, although this is the revised edition of 1972. It's become a treasure trove of good recipes for cooking from scratch. It has my favorite caramel corn recipe as well as a delicious chocolate buttercream frosting I go to again and again. And it has the wonderful cocoa mix that's as simple as I was looking for and with a small change is easy and makes a great cup of cocoa. Try and see if you like it!

Take a look at the ingredients:

I'm posting the picture of the ingredients so you can imprint them on your memory. Then the next time you are at the store and pull one of those cocoa mixes off the shelf and take a look at the ingredients, remember the FOUR ingredients in this picture! It's all you need - so buy them instead and make yourself a stash of cocoa (even if you do have a coupon for the mix :-).

OK, here's all you do:

Dump the milk, sugar, and cocoa in a blender (using the blender was the change I made - the original recipe just said to mix it all together, but I found that the milk powder would not dissolve properly in the mug and looked yucky to boot):

Whir it up until it's the consistency of a good cocoa mix. In my blender, it tends to get stuck on the sides, so I have to shake it a bit and use a spatula to push the ingredients to the center to get it fully blended (with the machine off, of course!) but after a few minutes it should look like this:

Then I store it in a nice glass jar with a 1/3 cup scoop. Depending on the size of the mug, 1/3 should be equal to one of the packets in the mixes. I usually use a little less than 1/3 c. in a regular mug.

Plus, I get to feel like Ma Ingalls...minus the blender.

Here are the measurements to make enough cocoa mix for 10 servings:

Homemade Instant Hot Cocoa Mix

3 cups dry milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 c. + 2 TB cocoa

1/8 tsp. salt

-Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until mixed thoroughly with no visible milk powder left.

-Store in a container with a 1/3 c. scoop.

-To make cocoa, put slightly less than 1/3 c. in a mug, pour in boiling water, stir and enjoy!

Approximate cost: $1.85 for 10 servings