Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix: Updating My Old Recipe

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When I was a newlywed I received a recipe for a homemade hot chocolate mix at a Tupperware Party. I made the recipe several times, especially when my kids were small, and I’ve kept the recipe all these years. Now that many years have gone by however, it was becoming increasingly apparent to me that my recipe needed a little updating.

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

One of the things I liked most about the recipe had now become one of the biggest problems. My recipe called for complete boxes and containers of each ingredient. This made mixing up a batch super easy. You just opened boxes, dumped them in the mixing bowl and stirred it together with no measuring needed. Unfortunately the manufacturers of these products don’t always keep their sizes the same and it was also becoming the most expensive option. There were usually different sizes of the ingredients in store brands that were a whole lot cheaper. My old recipe also made a large amount of mix (68 servings!) which didn’t really fit my family needs anymore either.

Here’s the original recipe and you’ll see what I mean:

1 Lb Box of Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar is still available in a one pound box but usually only in the Domino brand. The cheaper store brands are usually sold in 2 Lb plastic bags.

1 Lb Box of Nestle Quick – I could find the sugar free Nestle Quick in a 16 oz container but the regular sugar variety come in a 21 oz size. The store brand came in a 30 oz size and was almost twice the product for half the price. Update: I also think “Nestle Quick” is now sold as the “Nesquik” brand.

8 Qt Box of Instant Powdered Milk – I’m able to buy a box of powdered milk at Aldi which is the size that makes 8 quarts so this ingredient was still available in the right size at a good price.

11 Oz Jar of Coffee Mate – Most of the Coffee Mate creamers are now in 15 oz jars. I was able to find one store brand in an 11 oz jar, but many of the store brands come in much larger containers.

I decided it was time to get out the calculator, do some number crunching, and see if I could come up with a scaled down version of my recipe. After doing the math I concluded that my old recipe has a ratio pretty close to 10 parts dry milk, 5 parts chocolate powdered drink mix, 3 parts sugar, and 3 parts creamer.

So I now have a new and improved recipe that stays pretty true to the original, just in a smaller version and in measurements that aren’t dependent on a certain size that the ingredient may be sold in. (Although I’m keeping my old recipe too just to be sentimental.

Update: I’ve made this in an even smaller batch of 1 cup milk powder, a 1/2 cup of chocolate drink mix, 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, and 1/3 cup of powdered creamer. It makes about 8 servings and fits in a pint sized canning jar. Just enough for the occasional hot chocolate craving!

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Make your own frugal hot chocolate mix instead of buying the more expensive little premade packets from the store. This mix will make enough for 16 cups of hot chocolate.
Course: Beverage
Cuisine: American
Keyword: DIY Mix, Homemade Beverage
Yield: 16 servings
Author: Beverly

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Instant Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder
  • 1 cup Powdered Chocolate Drink Mix (such as Nesquick)
  • 3/4 cup Powdered (confectioner) Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Non-dairy Powdered Creamer

Instructions:

  • Combine all ingredients and keep in a covered container. 
  • To Use: Combine 1/4 cup of the mix with 1 cup of hot water. You can also use 1 cup of warm milk for a richer version.

I’ve been keeping Nesquik or something similar in the house because we’ve been liking this homemade French Vanilla Cappuccino Mix that uses that ingredient too.

Homemade French Vanilla Cappuccino Mix

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30 Comments

    1. Powdered sugar is usually used in hot cocoa mixes because it dissolves easily when you are making a cup of cocoa. However you could probably substitute the splenda instead and hopefully it will still dissolve OK when you make a cup of cocoa.

  1. Thank you so much for doing this, I was going to do just this and you have saved me the trouble. Like you I too got my recipe at a Tupperware party, probably 40+ years ago. It is now just me, I sure do not need a fix n mix full of hot chocolate mix any longer. Thank you.

  2. I wonder if you could use powdered milk instead of the non-dairy creamer, which I really would prefer not to use. Seems to me you would have to enhance the powdered milk in some way to thicken it. Any ideas?

    1. Some folks make their own powdered creamers from powdered milk by adding powdered sugar and coconut oil to it. These two ingredients are supposed to help give the powdered milk the added sweetness and creaminess of the powdered creamers. A common ratio is 1 cup powdered milk + 1/4 cup powdered sugar + 1 Tbl melted coconut oil. Perhaps you could also try just thickening it with some melted coconut oil if you would prefer not to add a sweetener.

  3. I would make large batches of mix each winter and my family would rave about their hot chocolates. Thank you for reducing the amounts for a smaller batch! I gave up sugar years ago but my hubby still enjoys his hot chocs. One suggestion, why not make your own ‘Nesquick’? The store bought version has changed ingredients and sugar has been replaced by artificial sweetners. (The corporate trick for reducing calories) If you prefer to go a more natural route, try 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 2/3 cup sugar and a pinch of salt. I use organic coconut sugar and use a bit less than called for. I also go with the special dark cocoa powder and natural sea salt. This would be the 1 cup of ‘Quik’ in the hot chocolate recipe. Thanks again for the update on an old favorite!!

  4. Thank you for updating the bulk recipe. I used to make it for my family of eight, but now it’s just the two of us!

  5. Oh my goodness. I was just asking my sister if she knew where to find this recipe and I told her I was going to search for it. My mother use to make this in the 68 servings, and we loved it. She died last year and we have been getting her cake, christmas cookies, pies and other recipes together and I wanted this so bad. Made me smile when I saw this. Thank you

    1. I’m glad you were able to find you Mom’s old recipe here on my blog Linda – it’s an oldie but a goodie. 🙂 I hope you like the updated version if you give it a try!

  6. Thank you! I too had the very old recipe from over 20 years ago and this holiday season pulled it out to make hot chocolate for gifts. I had no idea how much ingredient to use as it was a box of this, container of that. This has been my favorite recipe so thank you for updating it!

    1. Glad it was helpful Linda! I’ve used this update many times myself now too and it’s nice to have an alternative to a recipe that relies on package sizes.

      1. Does this really require 8 qts of dry milk? Big boxes are only 2 qts, so I bought 4. Oh my. Just wanted to double check. Thanks.

      2. “8 Qt Box of Instant Powdered Milk – I’m able to buy a box of powdered milk at Aldi which is the size that makes 8 quarts so this ingredient was still available in the right size at a good price.” So, this is my confusion–do I buy enough “dry” milk to make 8 qts. or am I to buy 8 qts of dry milk (which I did with 4 BIG boxes of milk).?

        1. This means a box of powdered milk that when made into liquid milk, would make 8 quarts. I looked at my most current box of powdered milk from Aldi and it is a 25.6 oz box (which says it makes 32 one cup servings – which is 8 quarts). So you just need one box that size. Sorry for any confusion.

  7. Thank you for posting this recipe. I had lost my copy of the original and was googling looking for it so I could mix it up. I like that you figured out how to make it a smaller batch for a smaller household, but in my household there are 6 of us so I needed the bigger batch.
    Deciding to see what would happen… I took your smaller recipe and quadrupled it and found that: it uses almost the whole box of powdered milk. I think there is still a cup left in the box. Your math was really good. For I used about 16oz of Nesquik, and 1lb of powdered sugar, and the whole 15oz bottle of creamer. 🙂

    I think I’ll either up the Nesquik to the 20oz or add some cocoa powder for some more chocolate flavor and for the future continue to use the original recipe with the whole boxes, bottles, etc. now…. unless they decide to change the sizes on us again!!! Just in case I’ll write down your smaller recipes so that I will have a guide, especially for when my household size decreases. 🙂

    Thanks again!!

    1. I remember puzzling over the math for quite a while when I worked on this recipe! I’ve made my small batch several times and it’s working well for our smaller household – I’m glad you’ve found it works to quadruple it too.

  8. Thank you for posting :-)! I also made this Hot Chocolate about twenty years ago or so. But it seems to me instead of Nestles Quick, the recipe called for Cocoa. I’m just wondering it might be that instead of the Nestlé quick? Only because the Cocoa is a lot more reasonable in price, has more flavor. At least that’s how I remember it, that was the biggest reason for the powder sugar, is because the Cocoa is quite bitter without some kind is sugar. I just can’t remember how much of it I used?

    1. I think I’ve seen hot chocolate recipes with cocoa too, but have always used the Nestle Quick. You’re right that if cocoa is substituted, then less of it should be used because it is stronger and/or you need to compensate with more powdered sugar in the recipe.

  9. Thank you for the recipe. 25 years ago I worked at a private school in CA. They built a parade float each Christmas with parent help. My job was to keep the mix made so cold and tired workers could rest a bit at their convenience with a cup of hot chocolate. The person with the recipe left and we’ve been without for years. I’ve moved on, but appreciate having this recipe now.

  10. Thank you! I ran into the same problem. Old recipes ingredients don’t come in the same sizes now as they did years back. I have fumbled my way around trying to make up the difference for currently smaller packages. You have solved it for me and I am going to make some this afternoon! Thank you thank you again!

  11. thank you, thank you, thank you. I had the same problem and have been searching the net looking for a recipe that gave me common measurements. Your's is perfect. Just what I hav been lookibg for.Joyce

    1. Where did the original recipe come from? My mom and mother in-law both had the original recipe. I have always wondered where it originated from.