Hot Cocoa Bar

Max's civics club had their Christmas party at our house last night. Everyone brought food to share…something savory and something sweet. Our “sweet” was a hot cocoa bar!

I found a recipe for crockpot hot cocoa (to serve a crowd) online. We sampled it and pronounced it too (TOO!) sweet, tweaked the recipe a bit, and got a hot cocoa we liked.



Here’s our version of the recipe:

CROCKPOT HOT COCOA

6 c. milk

1 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 of a can of sweetened condensed milk

1 t. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot. Set on “high” temperature until hot enough (will take about 2 hrs.), whisking to combine the melting chocolate every 20-30 mins. Then reduce temperature to “low” or “hold warm” setting to keep steaming hot. Serves 8. (We doubled the recipe to serve a larger number of people.)

And what’s hot cocoa without marshmallows? Homemade marshmallows taste SO much better than store bought ones. This is the recipe I use. Here’s our pan of marshmallows after it had sat overnight.



And here they are cut and ready for topping steaming cups of cocoa.



Other additions to the hot cocoa bar were:

candy canes (unwrapped) for stirring

Pepperidge Farm’s Mint Pirouette Cookies (for dunking and stirring)

a big bowl of whipped cream

chocolate syrup for drizzling

caramel syrup for drizzling

a shaker full of cocoa powder for dusting