Instructions
- In a sauce pan, combine and mix dry ingredients: cocoa powder, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add more sugar if needed.
- Add milk and turn on medium heat. Keep stirring until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps.
- Allow mixture to boil, then remove from heat.
- Serve with marshmallows or top it with whipped cream.
This is a simple stovetop hot chocolate relies on pantry basics rather than anything fancy: cocoa powder, sugar, and milk, with a small pinch of cinnamon and salt that lifts it beyond a plain mug of chocolate milk. The salt sharpens the chocolate flavor rather than making it taste salty, and the cinnamon adds a warm, slightly spiced note that nods to traditional Filipino tsokolate, the kind of drink usually made from roasted cacao tablets rather than powder.
Whisking the cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, and salt together before adding the milk keeps the drink smooth, since it helps the cocoa dissolve evenly instead of clumping once it hits the liquid. Heating it gently while stirring constantly, right up to a boil, thickens the milk slightly and melds the flavors into something richer than if you’d just stirred cocoa into a warm cup. It’s a comforting, not-too-sweet drink at its base, easy to adjust with more sugar if you like it sweeter, and finished off with marshmallows or whipped cream for a bit of creamy sweetness on top. Simple ingredients, but the cinnamon and salt do real work in rounding out the chocolate flavor.
