Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix with Marshmallows

Happy Saturday, y’all! Welcome to Day 8 of

I’m so excited to introduce y’all to the sweet and funny, Katie, from Eatin’ Food, Livin’ Life.  Katie and I have been twitter buddies for a while and I’m thrilled to have her guest posting today!

Katie is one of 90 bloggers sharing their  home made gift tutorials to help prepare for a handmade holiday.

Head on over to According to Kelly for 30 fabulous crafty gifts. Skip to My Lou has 30 sew fantastic sewing gift ideas – and I have THIRTY YUMMY gifts from 30 awesome bloggers!

We also have three amazing giveaways!  Visit each blog for details.. all together.. it’s over $1000 in prizes and goodies!

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Hey guys and girls! It’s Katie, the southern sister (again). I’m contributing to this year’s Holiday Bake, Craft, and Sew Along! I’m so excited to be here posting with all of these other lovely people. I do have to say, there are only two of us in the house, so some of my measurements may seem a little weird. I don’t do well with throwing out food, so I halve all of my recipes.

 

So let’s get down to it then.

 

Alright, here are the ingredients you’re going to need for the Hot Chocolate Mix

Hot chocolate mix ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1tsp vanilla

3/4c milk chocolate chips

1/3 (and a little bit) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2c cocoa powder

pinch of salt (you don’t NEED to have this in your mix)

 

1. Mix white sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor. I actually don’t have one that works currently, so I used my blender. It worked just the same, but I had to remember to scrape down the sides more often.

2. add the chocolate chips, and blend again.

3. Add the cocoa powder and salt if you want to add it to the mix.

There you have it! SIMPLE!!

Now, you want to add 1/4 cup of the mix to one cup of hot milk (or water actually isn’t all THAT bad with it) and stir until everything has melted or dissolved.

Alright, now. Fresh marshmallows!!! These are seriously so good, I couldn’t stop eating them even before it was ready to eat!

You need:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 light corn syrup

pinch of salt

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Now here’s what you do to make a fluffy, wonderful, white marshmallow.

1. Start by adding half of 1/3 cup cold water to a bowl. Add packet of gelatin. The powder will soften, while the gel forms.

2. Boil white sugar and corn syrup and a splash of water for about 5 minutes. If you have a candy thermometer, you’re looking for it to get to soft-ball heat, around 238-240.

3. Turn your stand mixer on LOW. This is wicked important or you’re going to have a huge burny-mess. Add the gelatin. It looks like this when it comes out of the bowl:

4. SLOWLY add the boiling sugar mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer. You can pour it into a glass measuring cup if that works better.

5. Whip that mixture for about 15 minutes until it becomes white, doubles in size and looks very much like Fluffernutter!

6. While that stuff is mixing up, you should take this time to get out the pan you’ll be putting your marshmallows into to set up. I read once that you’re supposed to spray it with PAM but that seems gross. I opted to go Ina Garten style on it, and sift confectioner’s sugar all over the pan. That way, it doesn’t stick and it isn’t oily.

7. When the marshmallow is all set up,just pour it into the pan and let it sit there on the counter top for at least three hours but overnight is better. Without that time, it will NEVER cut up for you. It’s too sticky.

8. When you’re ready, use a cookie cutter or even just a knife to section it into portions. I like these little tree shapes I found for a dollar each.

So then that’s it! You just pack ’em up and send ’em on!

 

Enjoy & don’t expect a clean kitchen after this one!

 

-Katie