This past Christmas, I was gifted a 10oz Ember Smart Mug by my wonderful brother. After running out of apple cider to drink late at night, I turned to my other favorite hot drink: hot chocolate. After seeing that the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder package would make waaaay too much for my needs, I scaled the recipe down to perfectly fit a 10oz mug like the Ember. You’re gonna need a scale for this.

Ingredients:

• 1.25oz granulated sugar
• 0.5oz cocoa powder
• 0.75oz water
• A pinch of kosher salt
• 7.5oz milk (I just use 2%, you could probably use a dairy-free substitute here)
• A few drops of vanilla extract

Directions:

• Combine sugar, cocoa, water, and salt in a saucepan. Heat until it’s turned into a nice chocolatey paste, scraping down the sides and making sure it’s not burning.
• Stir in milk and vanilla, and the heat to your desired temperature (I use an instant-read thermometer to make sure it’s at a nice 135ºF). Make sure the milk doesn’t boil. I don’t know why, but the Hershey’s recipe says to not do that.
• Enjoy!