Ever since having kids, the number of people who we give holiday presents to has grown exponentially. Between all of their teachers, their friends, our friends, our family, our babysitter (and more!), there are TONS of people who we want to express a little extra thanks to this year.
The cost of presents has also grown quite a bit, causing us to look for creative, and cost-efficient gifts that will still be loved by all.
Given that one of our family’s favorite winter beverages is hot chocolate, we decided to make homemade hot chocolate on a stick gifts (aka hot chocolate dippers or hot chocolate stirrers.)
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They couldn’t have been easier to make and my kids had so much fun letting their creativity run wild making them. There is little to “mess up” so even my 2-year-old was able to participate and make hot chocolate sticks that looked quite decent!
Finding a gift that the kids could be involved in was important to me as I wanted them to be apart of the process in expressing our appreciation for others.
HOW TO MAKE HOT CHOCOLATE ON A STICK
Watch video or scroll for text instructions.
SUPPLIES:
- Chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or white chocolate) (I prefer to use a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chocolate
- Mini Marshmallows
- Sprinkles
- Crushed candy canes
- Wooden spoons or sticks (or you can use white plastic spoons)
- Clear treat bags
- Mini-muffin tray or Ice cube tray
- Ribbon
INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE HOT CHOCOLATE ON A STICK
Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute. Remove and stir. Continue to heat in 30 second increments (stirring in between) until chocolate is melted and smooth.
Scoop melted chocolate into mini-muffin tray or ice cube tray.
Consider the size of your freezer and how much space you may have to freeze your hot chocolate sticks. If space is limited, I’d suggest using an ice cube tray.
Decorate the top with mini-marshmallows, crushed candy canes, and sprinkles. Let your creativity run wild!
After decorating, place a wooden stick (or plastic spoon) inside the middle of the chocolate.
Freeze for 20- 30 minutes or until chocolate is hardened.
After chocolate has hardened, remove from freezer and pop out of mini-muffin tray or ice cube tray. You can do this by gently pulling on the stick. (They should slide right out.)
Place in clear treat bag and decorate with a ribbon.
TO MAKE HOT CHOCOLATE
Stir the hot chocolate on a stick with warm milk until it dissolves. Top with additional marshmallows if desired. (Note: water does not work well with these; you want to use milk!)
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I really have a few questions.
How many ounces of chocolate chips do you use.
How much chocolate do you put in the mold. And what is the shelf life of the chocolate sticks.
I’m making them as Christmas gifts so do you keep them in the fridge or room temperature while they are bagged and ready to go.
Thanks,
Judu
Did you get a reply? I’m wondering the same.
Has anyone gotten a response on shelf life?
4 cups of chocolate chips works well
Hi, I know it’s probably too late for this year, but I’ve seen these on shelves at various small boutique type shops and even similar things at Target. I may be wrong, but I think they would be perfectly fine unrefrigerated once they are set. After all, it’s chocolate for the most part, and Hershey kisses, and chocolate chips are all on store shelves.
Your shelf life is the soonest expectations date on your ingredients. Usually your marshmallows have the soonest expiration date where as the chocolate normally has a 2 year shelf life.
Kein consigne kaffi onkel Karosse
I love this idea! I cannot wait to try it. I am making it for our Christmas celebration for our bible study group. I will make it again for the grands when they come over for Christmas! Thank you for this fun idea!
Jill K.
4 cups of chocolate chips works perfectly! Enjoy 😉
Becky, how many sticks four cups of chips make?
Becky? Are these soft enough after decorated and set to just eat rather than melt in milk? Looking for a quick handout gift at Christmas that can be eaten while playing games.
Yes, my kids do love to “sneak” some to eat! I would suggest using milk chocolate or another tasty chocolate if eating rather than melting. Enjoy!
How much hot milk do you use for the minis?
I wonder if instead of using a popsicle stick we can use a candy cane…
So smart love that idea!
Do I need to freeze, or just putting it in the fridge be ok?
Except you would have to hold the candy cane while stirring which would get sticky. Alternatively you could just let it sit in the cup and stir with something else but it may be crowded.
If you left the plastic on the hook part of the candy cane you could still stir with it without getting sticky. We often use candy canes as stir sticks at our Christmas parties
Love that Idea I think I’m going to try a few
How much milk do you use for each “chocolate pop”?
– I get the whole thing of putting the milk in the chocolate chips and just guesstimate on it but my question is do you spray the little muffin pan or will it just popped out without spraying it
I’m going to try these with a cake pop stick. It’s all I have.
Love this idea! Question- do you spray the pan ? Thank you
Any response whether or not to spray the pan?
It’s not necessary to spray pan. They should just pop out if they are solid
I use silicone molds for my chocolate making. It’s easier to pop them out rather than a metal baking mold.
Love all the great ideas, also you can make the chocolate spoon to stir with . I will try to send a picture when I make mine. Cross your fingers !
I might try it with a cinnamon stick!
Thank you Becky! What a great idea. I’m wanting to make a hot chocolate bar & put some on it I have young granddaughters & look forward to doing this with them.
Ours did not pop out. We didn’t grease the pan since it wasn’t in the directions, wish we would have. Didn’t stay on the spoon, cracked into multiple pieces. So ours wasn’t very pretty.
We had that problem as well, but tapped the bottom of the muffin pan with the thick end of a butter knife and they popped right out, whole!
You likely overheated the chocolate. It is very important to stir stir stir between heating the chocolate in the microwave. I would even do shorter intervals. Or you could use a double boiler where you stir the entire time (Google it).
We never think the hot chocolate keurig cup hot chocolate is never chocolaty enough, so this is the perfect solution!
Just a tip. Don’t bag them up until they have completely come back to room temperature or they will sweat. Store in a coolish room away from sun, heat, moisture. The refrigerator is not ideal as there is a lot of moisture.
Thank you for the tip. My daughter and I will be making these for a Christmas party tomorrow night.
Used the tip to make in an ice cube tray and worked out great!
Ended up using about 1/4 cup chocolate chips total per cube 😲
Made dark chocolate butterscotch swirl, white/ butterscotch, white peppermint, dark peppermint and dark orange 😍
2 trays and I had 28 sticks!!
Can’t wait to give them out!!
Thank you 😊
If you use a good quality chocolate it will temper and be shelf stable. If you use melting chocolate (often found in discs-altho’ good quality chocolate can be found in discs too) it will not temper, and be soft. Also, if kept in the fridge to long melting chocolate will absorb the smells of the fridge and turn white-ish. I don’t add milk/cream at all – just melt the chocolate and make the pops. The cheaper chocolate will melt quicker when added to hot milk, but often doesn’t have the depth of flavour I am after. I do use the melting disc chocolate for decoration. If tempered the chocolate will last – I place mine into cellophane bags.
Does anybody know how much warm milk to put this in
Oh My Gosh! This is just the cutest idea ever! Thank you for sharing this idea! – – – – – – I used 2 extra large bags of chips and made 36 pops. – – – – – – – – – TIP: I thought it would be a cute idea to put sprinkles or peppermint pieces into the muffin tin and then pour the chocolate over it. DON’T do it. LOL Most if not all of the sprinkles stay in the tin when you pull out the frozen pop. That was a waste.
Unfortunately I could not find a way to make the stick stand up. I tried wooden stick different thick ness, different spoons, different consistency of the chocolate. Non of them worked 🙁
Try putting a grated cooling rack over top of your muffin pan and then the sticks can’t fall far if at all.
The kids will love these!
Use plastic shot cups. It gives more height so sticks stand up better. Place cups on cookie sheet and put in freezer.
Thanks for the suggestion. I saw the cups at $ store in a pack of 24. Going back to get some. Can’t beat that price.
Would this work with spoons? I’m also worried chocolate would be to hot for shot glass, worth trying thanks going to try spoons
Love all these ideas, grands are going to love making these.
Mine had to be dug out of the muffin tin and I followed the directions to a tee. I make all kinds of chocolates so it’s not the fact I don’t know what to do.
Hit the back of the muffin pan with the back of a butter knife they come easily
Ladies,
These or any others Chocolate Sticks can be stored on your countertop for 3-6 months. I go ahead and make them up, bag them individually so that when a friend comes in it is a quick gift to take home.
You can use variations to your mixtures…if your recipe call for 4 C of Semi-Sweet then instead you may use…
2 C. Semi- Sweet chocolate Chips
2 C. milk Chocolate Chips
Toppings…
Sprinkles, Mini Marshmallows, crushed Candy Canes, mini M&M’s, white Chocolate Chips, etc.
If you have other questions feel free to ask me.
How much hot milk per chocolate stick?
Just a mug of warm milk!
Line your small muffin tins with the small muffin paper liners. You can pull them out by the stick.
Jo Ann, Can you take the liners off after you take them out (after they are cooled)? Or do you have to leave them on?
Thanks for all your ideas & tips! I’ve made these several Christmases ago. However, I was in a hurry & made many mistakes. All the tips really help answer my many “mistakes.” 🤗🎄Thanks again!
No way my freezer has that much upright space to fit ice cube with sticks or spoons sticking out the top.
Fridge or counter work too?
There’s no way you didn’t grease your muffin tin. Biggest waste of my time and resources. Now I have to go scoop hardened chocolate out of 36 mini muffin cups. I tried tapping them from the bottom with a knife but they don’t budge. The sticks come right out. Now to go figure out another gift for my kid’s teachers before next Tuesday.
I made these but made them using a double boiler. The chocolate was creamy and easier to handle. I also used a little bit of Crisco on the muffin tin. Once they came out of the freezer, they popped right out and I put them in little bags to share.