Peppermint Hot Cocoa

Christmas is just around the corner! One of my favorite traditions during this time of year is friends/neighbor gifts. I grew up on a farm in a small town and every fall we would make hundreds of gallons of fresh apple juice and then a few weeks before christmas we would go out as a family and deliver it to friends, family, and neighbors as our christmas gift! I don't know why I loved it so much but since then I get so excited for this time of year to give give give!

Who doesn't love Hot Chocolate!? This year as I was brain storming ideas for our gift I came across THIS recipe. Being college students we aren't made of money so I was looking for something cute, cheap, and easy and that is exactly what this recipe was. I had most of the ingredients already and all of the cute bags and ribbon in my craft box so this was perfect! This took me only 5 minutes to prepare and about 1-2 total to make the gift tags and package everything up! This recipe makes so much hot chocolate so be prepared to give at least some away!

I made some slight modifications so here is the recipe I made:

1 Box (25.6 oz) of Powered Milk
1 cup Confectioners' Sugar
1 1/2 cups Original Powdered Coffee Creamer
1 Can (2.21lbs.) Nesquick Powdered Chocolate Milk Mix
4 Tbs. Cocoa Powder
1 Box Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
12 Peppermint Candy Canes Crushed.

Mix all the ingredients together in a LARGE bowl and then evenly distribute Cocoa Mix into mason jars or cellophane bags. When you want to drink it combine 1/3 mix with 2/3 water or milk.
* This recipe made about 10 bags.

I made 1 batch of the original recipe and then made a second batch with the modifications. The only things I changed was first, I used a smaller box of Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix because the first recipe was too chocolatey and second, I crushed up a lot more Peppermint Candy Canes, because I felt like I could hardly taste the peppermint the first time.