Recipe

Enjoy all the classic gingerbread flavors in a warm and rich cup of hot chocolate that will immediately become a new holiday favorite!

I’ll show you how to make the best gingerbread hot chocolate at home in 10 minutes, whether you need 4 mugs or 1.

a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon sticks and two gingerbread men on the side

Gingerbread Hot Chocolate Recipe

Laura fuentes holding a skillet of food standing in front of a blue door

Although I love coffee all year round, during the holidays my mugs are filled with another sippable favorite: hot cocoa! My kids love the classic recipe but also enjoy the different variations I make for them, like this gingerbread hot chocolate. It tastes like my classic gingerbread cake, and it's easy to make in 10 minutes with simple ingredients.

What Does Gingerbread Hot Cocoa Taste Like?

Gingerbread hot chocolate is made with the same classic spices you find in gingerbread cake and cookies: ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This is a ginger spiced cocoa perfect for the holiday season.

Ingredients

This recipe for gingerbread hot chocolate calls for unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar (brown or regular), a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor, hot water, vanilla extract, and dairy or non-dairy milk. To make it taste like gingerbread, you’ll need ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

How to Make Gingerbread Hot Cocoa

Combine dry ingredients.
Make it in a small dish or use a mug if you're making a single serving.
Make the hot cocoa.
Whisk the dry mix with water on the stove until you get a liquid chocolatey mixture. Add the milk and heat it up, making sure it doesn't boil (or it could burn!). Right before serving, add vanilla. For one mug, combine the dry mix with hot milk.
Serve.
Top your gingerbread hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows, or your favorite hot cocoa toppings. Don’t forget the mini gingerbread men on the side!

More Hot Cocoa Recipes

If fall flavors are your thing, you should also try my pumpkin spice hot chocolate and this peppermint hot chocolate, or even this epic spicy hot cocoa. For fun and colorful mugs, you need this raspberry hot chocolate in your life.

Always See My Recipes In Google

Gingerbread Hot Cocoa (1 mug or 4!)

a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon sticks and 2 gingerbread men on the side

Servings: 4

Cook Time: 8

Total Time: 8

Enjoy all the classic gingerbread flavors in a warm and rich cup of hot chocolate that will immediately become a new holiday favorite!

5 from 3 votes

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Ingredients

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup brown sugar, or regular
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
⅓ cup hot water
6 cups milk, dairy or non-dairy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Prep:

In a small dish, combine the cocoa powder, sugar, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Make the hot cocoa:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk the water and the cocoa powder, sugar, and spices mixture. Continue stirring constantly until the cocoa powder and sugar have turned into a liquid chocolatey mixture.
Pour in the milk, and warm it up over medium heat until it's hot -do not boil it, or you'll risk burning the milk.
Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into mugs and serve immediately.

Notes

For one: in the bottom of a mug, mix 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of sugar, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. Heat 1 ¼ cups of milk until hot but not boiling (in the microwave or stovetop). Pour a little bit of the hot milk, just enough to cover the powdered mixture, and with a spoon or small whisk, until the cocoa, sugar, and spices have dissolved. Then, add ¼ teaspoon of vanilla pour the rest of the hot milk into the mug, and stir to combine.

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