DIY Homemade Hot Chocolate Gift Basket

One of the things on my holiday to do list this year is make a batch of gift baskets to have on hand and ready to give to friends, neighbors, teachers, co-workers and hostesses, as the need arises. I feel like every year I'm scrambling at the last minute to come up with cute and clever ideas for little gifts for all those people that we love, appreciate and want to thank with a sweet little gift. My initial idea was to put together a basket full of homemade fruit spreads and jams that I made over the summer from all our Eckert's fruit picking adventures (spiced blackberry honey jam, peach salsa, strawberry preserves and apple butter) with a loaf of freshly baked bread or some muffins. I mean, how amazing would that have been, right? But, alas, when I went to check my stock of canned jams, I realized that we (the kids!) ate nearly everything I made this year already! Reminder for next year to double up on all picked fruit! 

My next idea was to make something a little more "holiday" appropriate, so I decided to go with a homemade hot chocolate basket. Homemade hot chocolate mix is stupidly easy to whip up and throw in a cute Mason jar with a printable lid label and direction tag (both of which I've included below). But mainly, I've been really excited to make my own homemade marshmallows! This has been on my baking bucket list for a while now and I was stunned by how easy they were to make and tasted even more delicious than I expected. And since I had some chocolates and candies leftover from another project, I decided to make a few chocolate candy coated spoons to dunk into your hot chocolate to give it an extra little kick. Add a few pretty paper straws and some candy canes, throw it all in a box/basket and voila! You've got the perfect gift for everyone on your list! 

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Let's start with the main ingredient, shall we? Homemade hot chocolate mix is comprised of 4 simple ingredients (powdered sugar, cocoa powder, dry milk and salt) and all you have to do is mix them together. It literally couldn't be any easier! Once everything is incorporated together, spoon out enough mix to fill a jar. The recipe below will fill 3 pint sized Mason jars - I used the ones with handles, so they'd double as a mug for the recipient. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dry milk
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
2. To make hot chocolate, mix 1/2 cup hot chocolate powder into 1 mason mug of hot water. Add marshmallows (and any other fun toppings or fixings) and enjoy!

Once your mugs are filled, free free to use these free printable lid labels and attach a direction tag. I've included links to both below. I printed the tags on kraft paper and tied the them on with some red baker's twine, but any ribbon would work. 

{CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREE PRINTABLE HOLIDAY MASON JAR LID LABELS}

{CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREE PRINTABLE HOMEMADE 

HOT CHOCOLATE MIX DIRECTION TAGS}

Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

While the hot chocolate mix might be the main ingredient in this gift basket, these homemade vanilla bean marshmallows are going to steal the show! They are UNREAL. So light and fluffy. So creamy and melty and amazing. If you've never had homemade marshmallows, you are missing out! They are super easy to make, I promise. And you'll never go back to store-bought again! 

First up, mix your gelatin with cold water in the bowl of your standing mixer. Let sit to solidify while you bring your sugar, corn syrup, salt and water to a boil on the stove. Make sure you have a candy thermometer (I have this one - it's cheap and works like a charm) and get your melted mixture up to 240 degrees. This is important and it takes a bit longer than I would have boiled it had I not been using my thermometer. And by bit, I mean a couple minutes. This whole process is pretty quick (less than 10 minutes). 

Once your syrup mixture is sufficiently HOT, add it to the gelatin mixture in the mixing bowl and whip on high for about 15 minutes until the mixture is very thick. At the very end, stop your machine and add your vanilla bean paste. You can use regular vanilla extract, but vanilla bean paste will give this a much richer, stronger vanilla flavor and you'll be able to see those awesome little specks of vanilla bean in the marshmallow. If you can, warm the vanilla bean paste (or extract) up a bit so it melts into the marshmallow mixture easier (and doesn't make it separate). Mix for another minute or two until completely incorporated. 

While all this mixing is going on, line a pan with plastic wrap, spray it with non-stick cooking spray and dust the whole thing with a heavy coating of powdered sugar. This mixture is STICKY like you wouldn't believe, so be sure to coat everything nook and cranny thoroughly. Smooth the top of the mixture and dust the whole thing with more powdered sugar. Store uncovered in a cool dry place overnight. 

Once you're ready, turn the mixture out onto a cutting board covered in (you guessed it) powdered sugar and cut into 1 inch wide strips (using a knife or a pizza cutter!). Then cut your strips into squares. Roll the sides in powdered sugar to prevent sticking and store in an airtight container. 

Ingredients:

• 3 envelopes unflavored gelatin 
• 1 c. cold water, divided 
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar 
• 1 c. light corn syrup 
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt 
• 2 T. vanilla bean paste
• 2 cups powdered sugar, for dusting 

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water. Allow to sit while you prepare the sugar syrup.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup cold water. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Raise heat to high and cook until the sugar syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer.
3. Remove sugar syrup from the heat. With the mixer on low speed and fitted with the whisk attachment, slowly pour sugar syrup into the gelatin. Turn mixer up to high speed and whip until very thick, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla bean paste (warmed) and mix thoroughly. 
4. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13" glass baking dish with plastic wrap. Spray plastic wrap with non­-stick cooking spray and dust generously with powdered sugar. Pour marshmallow mixture into pan, smooth the top, and dust top with more powdered sugar.
5. Allow marshmallows to stand uncovered overnight to dry. 
6. Turn marshmallows out onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut marshmallow into 1­ inch wide strips. Cut strips into 1­ inch squares. Roll cut sides in powdered sugar. 
7. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 or 4 days. If marshmallows become sticky, remove the container lid for a bit to allow marshmallows to dry.

Chocolate Dipped Spoons

My last homemade addition to the hot chocolate basket was a trio of chocolate dipped spoons, topped with Ande's mints, white chocolate chips and mini cinnamon chips. Again, this is super easy. I started with these wooden spoons and dipped them into melted milk chocolate. Once they solidified a little bit, I sprinkled the toppings on and let them harden in the fridge overnight. Each hot chocolate box contained one bag of a variety pack of chocolate dipped spoons. Other amazing variations would be butterscotch chips, peppermints, salted caramel, coconut, peanut butter chips, sprinkles, etc. 

Assembling your gift basket

When that was all said and done, I threw it all together into the cutest little hot chocolate kit you ever did see. I added a few red striped straws, some candy canes for dipping/stirring and tied a pretty bow around a little wooden fruit basket. You could use any basket, bin, crate or bag you wanted. I just so happened to have a few of these wooden baskets on hand and they made the perfect size container for 2 jars of hot chocolate and all the fixings. Although, you could probably go even smaller and just gift one jar of mix, with the toppings (I think that'd be plenty). 

I'm joining forces today with a few other bloggers to bring you a variety of fun, cute and clever gift basket ideas for the holidays. If hot chocolate and/or baking isn't your thing, be sure to check out some of the other ideas (for beer lovers, crafty kids, the perfect hostess or your best friend). 

Hostess Gift Basket - I Love You More Than Carrots

Craft Beer Gift Basket - Ellie & Addie

Coffee Lovers Gift Basket - Chasin' Mason

DIY Money Tree - Seeing All Sides

Homemade Hot Chocolate Gift Basket - Running From The Law 

Champagne Gift Basket - East Coast Chic

Spa Day Gift Basket - Secrets of a Stay At Home Mom

Kid Craft Gift Basket - The Adventure Starts Here

{Pin for later}

Hopefully none of my co-workers, neighbors or Mac's teachers read this blog, because I made 10 of these little baskets and they're all getting one! (If you read this and get one, please just pretend to be surprised). 

Do you like giving (or receiving) gift baskets?

Santa Was Here!

Christmas morning at our house was absolutely magical this year. As much as I thought Mac got Christmas last year, he really got it and got excited about it this year, making it our best year yet. We had an entire month of Christmas celebration and countdown, including doing Elf on the Shelf (which I swore I'd NEVER do...totally eating my words on that one) and an advent calendar filled with fun adventures like a ride on the Polar Express, neighborhood caroling, a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park to see Christmas lights, charitable giving and a visit to Santa. Doing all those things and having Mac wake up with such excitement and magic in his eyes made it all worth it. 

But as any parent of young germ-infested children knows, things don't always go according to plan. Unfortunately, two days before Christmas my husband came down with a very nasty case of the stomach flu, which took him out of commission for the entire weekend. Not only did he miss Christmas Eve dinner at his parents house (his favorite meal of the year), he couldn't even stay up with me to help set-up and prep the room for Santa's visit. I know it broke his heart and he's promised to do all the work next year, but I have to admit it was a bit lonely doing it all by myself this year. Thankfully, he did good job quarantining himself from the rest of us and no one else got sick (yet...knock on wood).  

While we parents might not feel the same type of Christmas magic as our kids, there's still something pretty special about making Christmas magical for them and I've taken great pleasure in it this year. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but Ryan's family has a tradition where all the stuffed animals in the house make their way to the tree to see all the presents that Santa brings. When Ryan and his brother were little, their animals could be found Christmas morning on the raft that Santa brought, hanging out in the tree, playing with trains or just scattered around the room checking out the presents. I love this tradition and I'm excited to pass this on to our kids! Mac was blown away Christmas morning to see all his "babies" hanging out on the presents - he kept asking me how they got there and whether they got to meet Santa. It was adorable. It also makes the pile of gifts look huge and like the kids received 10 times the amount of gifts! 

Mim woke up first on Christmas morning, so we kept her up in bed with us snuggling until she could no longer wait. Girlfriend wakes up HUNGRY and in desperate need of a bowl of cereal and some Curious George, so we made our way to the kitchen to occupy her and give her a snack until Mac woke up a few minutes later. I think he initially forgot that it was Christmas, but once he remembered, he couldn't wait to get downstairs and see if his medical tools arrived. 

Just like last year, the first thing he broke into was his stocking, which was filled with some small gifts and candy. He insisted on eating the candy IMMEDIATELY and was so fixated on it that we couldn't get him to concentrate on any other gifts until we took it away and hid it, resulting in a meltdown from both kids. Mim didn't care about the presents AT ALL and only wanted breakfast as soon as humanly possible. We kept dragging her back into the living room and she kept running back into the kitchen, climbing into her high chair and yelling, "EAT EAT EAT!!" So, Ryan fed her breakfast while I opened gifts with Mac (there was no stopping him now).

As I previously mentioned, Mac requested medical tools (for a vet clinic) and a new garbage truck from Santa and boy, did he deliver! His "real" medical tools came in a sleek black doctor bag and included things like a blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, tongue depressors, syringes, animal x-rays, gauze/bandages, otoscope, reflex hammer, clipboard, lab coat and pen light. He was blown away! Not only did Santa bring all those goodies, but our whole family played along and got him giant stuffed animals for his clinic, pet carriers, books on being a veterinarian and other fun stuff. He's totally set for Mizzou vet school - class of 2038 (or something insanely futuristic-sounding). 

Mac currently has possession and control of my old iPad, much to Mim's shock and horror, so she just might have gotten her own iPad for Christmas (aka: Ryan's new iPad for work travel). It's preloaded with a bunch of obnoxious peek-a-boo apps that she loves and Frozen, so her life is infinitely better these days. Otherwise, she got some clothes, hat/gloves, books, a chair, some diapers, toothpaste, shampoo and vitamins. 

The rest of Mac's haul consisted of a new garbage truck, books, Play-Doh, sunglasses, Disney movies, a giant stingray, socks and Hot Wheel cars. Both kids also got personalized Christmas shirts (from Leah) and plates (from Liz). It sounds like a lot, but I think Santa did a good job this year cutting back on the crap and focused more on quality items that the kids could wear, read, need or use for years to come. Good job, Santa. 

So yeah, that was our Christmas morning! It was so much fun, but over in the blink of an eye. Right around the time the last present was being opened, my mom arrived for Christmas brunch with my family, which we hosted this year for 10 adults and 4 kids (plus  2 dogs, 1 cat, a dozen fish and a guinea pig - all of which received gifts and a stocking!). We love our zoo and wouldn't have it any other way! 

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas as well!