15 Creamy Hot Chocolate Recipes to Warm You Up This Fall

Lyuba Brooke

November 6, 2022 at 3:41 AM·4 min read

While most of these 18 best hot chocolate recipes are perfect for the kiddos, a few happen to be a bit boozy, making them the ideal alcoholic hot chocolate recipes.

Living in a Southern state, we don't have much of a cold weather season around here. Although, as soon as the holiday times roll around, I don't care if it's 80 degrees outside, I just crank up the AC and make a big batch of hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is not just warm and comforting for your body, it's soul-warming too, especially around the holidays—and fall and winter in general.

How to Make Hot Chocolate Better

Hot chocolate is traditionally made with your preferred type of chocolate—dark, semisweet or bittersweet—grated into a cup filled with hot milk and sugar. To make hot chocolate even more interesting for the taste buds, it's important to mix things up a bit. You may want to try something with caramel flavors, hazelnut flavors or different types of chocolate, and you can't forget the whipped cream and marshmallows!

Here are some additional things you can add to hot chocolate to make it an even more memorable winter drink.

maple syrup
caramel
flavored marshmallows
crushed candy canes
crushed toffee
pumpkin spice
cinnamon or nutmeg
almond, butterscotch or vanilla extract
chocolate syrup
Nutella
peanut butter
orange zest
chili powder
coffee or espresso
flavored liqueur
whipped cream

While most of these hot chocolate recipes are perfect for the kiddos, a few happen to be a bit boozy, which means they should be saved for an adult-friendly cup of cocoa. There's nothing like drinking spiked hot cocoa while curled up on a couch after all. And to make things extra decadent, throw some ice cream in your hot chocolate or add a candy cane straw!