Homemade Hot Cocoa

Two facts about me:

1) I really haven't ever liked hot cocoa. I've tried to get better about it over the years, but it just hasn't ever done anything for me.

2)I've always had hot cocoa made from a powder that you add to boiling water.

The other night I made hot cocoa from scratch. It was the best hot cocoa I have ever tasted. (Which isn't saying much. Refer back to #2.) In talking to others my age, I realize I'm not alone in this horrible example of childhood deprivation: many other folks my age were subjected to the same level of depravity, our mothers adopting the Swiss Miss version of cocoa in place of something actually made of milk.

I usually make cheese or yogurt when I have extra milk at the end of the week, but to heck with useful, healthy dairy. I'm just gonna start making a half-gallon of cocoa every week. To be fair, while I wouldn't call it "healthy", it's probably about the closest to healthy any real hot cocoa could be.

Here's my version of the recipe, which originally came from allrecipes.com. I added the "normal" ingredients in parentheses, because I realize not everyone cares about silly things like raw milk and evaporated cane juice.

2/3 cup unsweetened cacao powder
1 cup evaporated cane juice (sugar)
1/4 tsp sea salt
2/3 cup boiling water
7 cups raw milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of cream skimmed off the top of the milk before pouring (think half and half or even heavy cream)

Dissolve the sugar and cocoa in the boiling water on the stove in a large pot. Whisk until smooth, and cook a bit til fully dissolved. Then add the milk and vanilla, stir constantly until too hot to drink. Swirl in the cream and serve. This makes 8-1 cup servings. Half it if you aren't planning to share.

This whole process takes about 15 minutes. It's absolutely worth the effort. If you've never had cocoa made from scratch before (or if you have, but not lately) you should definitely try it.