Hot Cocoa Spoons

This is just a fun little thing you can do for the hot cocoa lovers in your life. Combined with a cool mug it's a thoughtful holiday gift that's easy to make and relatively inexpensive.

These chocolate coated spoons can be stirred into milk to make hot cocoa, or they can be stirred in with instant hot cocoa for a super rich chocolate lovers version.

You'll need some teaspoons, some chocolate for melting, assorted seasonings, mini-marshmallows, sandwich bags, tags, and twist ties or string.

For the spoons, I have purchased metal teaspoons at the local dollar store for pennies a piece, but this year ordered Eco-friendly bamboo disposable spoons for these treats. Plastic will also work, but I try to avoid that in deference to climate change.

As far as the chocolate, don't skimp. I use either Ghirardelli or GODIVA and am careful to melt it the right temp before filling and dipping the spoons. When I sat seasonings, I refer to instant espresso powder, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and peanut powder.

You can certainly purchase candy bags, twist ties and tags as I did, but you can also save money and use baggies and yarn or string.

As far as quantities, this is tough. I estimate that there is between 1 and 2 tablespoons of melted chocolate for each teaspoon. In theory, a 6oz. bag of chips will net you about 8 - 12 spoons. You can probably figure around 6 - 8 mini marshmallows per spoon, and as far as the 'seasonings, a sprinkling for each spoon.

Melting Dark Chocolate

I melt the chocolate in a double boiler and use a thermometer to monitor temperature. First I bring the chocolate up to a tempering temperature of 113 +/- f then reduce the temp to between 88 and 91 degrees for dipping. Note that these temperatures vary if you're melting milk or white chocolate.

I use the mini marshmallows to create the base for the dipped spoons, and then sprinkle my seasonings on while they are still warm. Then I may dot some more marshmallows on top and let them cool completely before wrapping and tagging.

line a cookie sheet with wax paper and create a bed of marshmallows.

Place dipped spoons on bed of marshmallows to cool, and sprinkle with seasonings.

For cayanne (Aztec) hot cocoa, I skipped the marshmallows.

Ultimately I made a few varieties that included cappuccino with instant espresso powder and cinnamon; Aztec with a pinch of cayenne on each spoon; peanut butter cup with a sprinkle of PB2 powder on each spoon; some salted caramel with some toffee and sea salt, and some just plain chocolate.