Best Ever Hot Chocolate Recipe

This easy hot chocolate recipe is made with real chocolate, not cocoa powder and requires only 3 ingredients and 10 minutes to make. It’s the perfect warm drink this holiday season that you’re going to want to make again and again!

When I shared my hot chocolate toppings charcuterie-inspired dessert board the other day, I got so many comments asking for my homemade hot chocolate recipe. It’s SO easy that I’ve never thought to share it before!

It literally takes only a few minutes to make and requires just chocolate, sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!). I’ve used this recipe for the past ten years and it’s always a hit.

My favorite part is how easy it is to scale. I regularly only make half the batch so that there’s just enough for me and my kids, but if we’re having guests over, I like to double it and keep it warm in a slow cooker.

Sometime I’ll even split it and make two variations – one with peppermint extract added and then just the plain one!

Then top it with freshly whipped cream or marshmallows to make it extra special. I’m partial to these cute snowflake ones that I found at my grocery store. So cute, right?!

If you find that the hot cocoa is too sweet for your liking (I think it’s perfect and I don’t like really sweet things) just increase the milk by another 1/4 to 1/2 cup.

Another great thing to do is to add 1/8 tsp of salt to the batch – it gives it more depth of flavor instead of just sweet!

So incredibly simply but so much better than any packet mix you’ll ever try, I promise!