Loaded Hot Chocolate With A Crunchy Twist! A Recipe Perfect For The Holidays

It’s warm, creamy and oozing with whip cream. Our homemade loaded hot chocolate is always a great way to start the holiday season.

Every year right after Halloween, my family and I start setting up the house for the holiday and Christmas season. We love getting into the spirit by putting on a classic Christmas movie - any Home Alone fans here?!

We pull all of the decorations out of storage, which usually takes us a while...we have a ton of decorations and each year we try to do an entirely new theme. This year we were thinking classic reds, shiny silvers and gold accents to tie it all together. (I’ll follow up with pictures).

After a long evening of decorating the house, adding the final touches to the garland spiraling down the staircase, fluffing the Christmas tree and putting up lights outside, we love curling up on the couch to a warm hot chocolate.

Every year we make a new version of a homemade hot chocolate, tweaking the recipe to our mood that particular year. Last year for example, we made a spiked white hot chocolate with gingerbread crumble overtop. Let’s just call it what it is, we are obsessed with holiday drinks - hot chocolate(s) to be exact.

This year we wanted to make it more of a dessert and less of a drink. When you decide to sit down and give this recipe a try, make sure to keep a spoon near. You’re going to want to scoop every last bit of this up.

It’s time to get rid of those instant mix hot chocolate powder pouches. Our loaded hot chocolate recipe is so easy that it only calls for 5 ingredients. Yes ONLY 6 ingredients to make the most delicious, fully loaded hot chocolate this holiday season.

Loaded Hot Chocolate Recipe:

2 Servings:

• ½ Cup of Milk

• .5 Cup of Half & Half

• 2 Tablespoons of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

• 2 Tablespoons of Sugar

• 2 Tablespoons of Melted Lindt Extra Creamy Chocolate

• 2-3 Drops of Vanilla Extract

Loaded Hot Chocolate Garnish:

• 1 Medium Piece of More Granola’s Hot Cocoa Granola Chunk as garnish

• Milk Chocolate Crispearls from Chocolatta Gourmet as garnish

• Saxon Chocolates Snowed In Holiday Shaped Marshmallows as garnish from

• Lindt Canada 90% Cacao Supreme Dark Chocolate Shavings as garnish from

Oh and don’t skip out on the granola garnish - it's more of a main ingredient if you ask me.

The combination of More Granola crunchy Hot Cocoa Granola chunks dipped into a warm hot chocolate dripping in whip cream!!! I mean c’mon it’s literally Christmas in a cup.

Loaded Hot Chocolate Recipe Steps

Step 1:

Place milk of your choice in a saucepan on medium to low heat.

Step 2:

Slowly add and whisk your cocoa powder and sugar of choice into the saucepan.

Step 3:

Chop up chocolate of choice and whisk in until melted completely. (We used 2 tablespoons of Lindt Extra Creamy Chocolate)

Step 4:

Add a couple of drops of vanilla extract. (We tried with and without and when the vanilla extract is added, it brings out more of the chocolate flavours.

Step 5:

Pour your hot chocolate into a mug of choice leaving room for garnish.

Step 6:

Add your marshmallows, whip cream then add chocolate crispearls and shaved chocolate overtop. Finish your loaded hot chocolate off by dunking a medium size piece of granola from More Granola. Be sure to serve hot.

Looking for other ways of making your very own loaded hot chocolate that suits your dietary needs? Here’s a list of alternatives to our recipe.

Healthier Alternatives to Recipe:

• Try switching your milk and half and half mix to a skim almond or oat milk. I would recommend the almond or skim milk option personally. I have never tried hot chocolate with oat milk. If you have, let us know in the comments your experience and thoughts on using oat milk in hot chocolate.

• Reduce or replace sugar for brown sugar, honey and or organic maple syrup.

• Replace the milk chocolate for dark or unsweetened chocolate.

Flavour Alternatives to Recipe:

• Too sweet? Try adding an espresso shot (recommended to all the coffee lovers out there)

• Too much chocolate? Replace one of the ingredients or garnishes with a salted caramel sauce or add a peppermint or hazelnut extract to change up the flavour.

• Make a flavoured whip cream of choice.

Let us know know in the comments below what you would load your hot chocolate up with.