The cold weather hasn't subsided yet, and neither has our craving for hot chocolate. Gina wrote in with a request to make a natural version of hot chocolate mix that her son can enjoy on Cub Scout outings, and we thought this would be the perfect time of year for such a recipe.We made a new version of this seasonal favorite by making it from scratch. There are no artificial ingredients or flavors in our homemade hot chocolate recipe. And, this homemade treat makes a wonderful Valentine's Day gift! Check out the recipe we developed for Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix opens in a new tab.Conventional hot chocolate mixes may be highly processed. For some of the brands we checked out, the lists of ingredients included things like corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil (a trans fat) and artificial flavors. Our simple mix contains only five ingredients, and you'll immediately recognize all of them. And of course our version doesn't include any artificial ingredients. For flavor and aroma, we blended a vanilla bean with natural cane sugar to make aromatic vanilla sugar, and we used this to complement the cocoa in our mix.Got a recipe that needs a natural makeover? Post it in the comments section below! If we select your recipe and publish the improved version on our website, we'll send you a $25 Whole Foods Market gift card.
