Decadent Starbucks White Hot Chocolate Recipe

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Cooking With Anadi

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You may find it odd that I’m sharing a hot chocolate recipe in March when you may think of this for a Christmas recipe. Well, hey, there’s still a ton of snow here in Canada, people are still skating on the Rideau Canal, and I’m still cold! Plus, who can resist a hot chocolate at any time of the year? It’s just truly a comforting drink! Of course, you can totally save this recipe for Christmas, but I hope you won’t wait that long to try it out!

I’ve actually been loving my hot drinks this winter! Better late than never to indulge! From Starbucks, I’ve recently tried the Sugar Cookie Oat Latte (unfortunately you can’t order it anymore, but thankfully you can make your own!), the Caramel Macchiato, and right before writing this, the hot white chocolate. My go-to order is a Cafe Mocha, so of course that always has a special place in my heart! I still gotta try the White Chocolate Mocha, but trust me, I will be doing that very soon (and you can now see how to make the best White Chocolate Mocha at home - hot or iced!)

As I said, hot chocolate is comfort in a cup. I had one yesterday with a nice box of poutine on the Rideau Canal - it’s a yearly tradition and I was almost too late! Thankfully I got my dream combo right on time! I’m a huge chocolate lover, and you’ll see this in my S’mores Hot Chocolate recipe, but there sure is a soft spot in my heart for white chocolate.

I don’t know about you, but I view this white hot chocolate as a very special and royal delight. Dark chocolate is my favorite, but when there’s white chocolate, you know things are getting fancy! I find white chocolate is very fitting with winter because white is like snow right! Sounds silly, but it’s true! Plus, you just can’t resist that smooth creaminess. White chocolate is truly in its own league! Comment below if you love white chocolate - though I imagine you do if you’re here! And I’m so glad you’re here because if you’re a white chocolate lover, then this will take your hot chocolate game to a whole new level!

What Is Hot Chocolate with White Chocolate?

This recipe is inspired by the Starbucks drink. The Starbucks version is made by pumping a mysterious white chocolate sauce, and then steamed milk is added to the cup. It’s finished with some whipped cream. I have to say I literally watched them make the drink about 8 hours before I made this recipe, so I can say this confidently that that’s what they do at Starbucks!

What we’ll be doing in this recipe is making our hot chocolate over the stove by boiling milk and adding white chocolate in. It’ll be a bit more involved than what they make at Starbucks, and to be fair, I think it’ll taste a lot better! You’ll see how easy peasy this white chocolate recipe is, and it’s going to be your new favorite hot drink I’m sure!

Don’t forget to watch the video to give you a full picture on how to make this amazing recipe! Also, be sure to subscribe to me on YouTube if you haven’t already! I love to share the video recipes to complement the written recipes, as I find a video is more tangible than reading how to make something new. Hit the bell button on YouTube so you’re notified when my video recipes go live to go along with the written recipes! Now let’s get to the recipe!

Tips for Creamy Homemade White Hot Chocolate

• Be careful not to overheat the chocolate or milk, the chocolate may split if too hot.
• The type and flavor of chocolate you use will change this drink - experiment!
• Don’t add sweeteners until the very end, in most cases, the sweetness from the chocolate will be more than enough.

Tools Needed

• Nonstick pan
• Whisk
• Wooden spoon
• Microplane
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cups

Ingredients

Time to see the ingredients we’ll need to make this white chocolate hot chocolate! You’ll be surprised to see that the ingredient list is quite small, and I’m sure you’ve already got everything on hand! Remember, the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD with all ingredient quantities is at the bottom of this post! You can easily scale all of the ingredients based on how many cups of hot chocolate you plan on making!

• Milk: For this hot white chocolate recipe, I’ll be using 2% milk, and this is the standard drink that’s used in making the drink at Starbucks. You could use whole milk for an even creamier texture, and you could even use non-dairy alternatives. I didn’t use whole milk because I’ll be adding cream to add thickness, but if you don’t have cream on hand then go for a whole milk. If you’re using a non-dairy alternative, keep in mind the taste and texture won’t be the same.
• Chocolate: Just use your favorite white chocolate bar. Of course you want to look for the best kind out there! At the grocery store, I could only find the Lindt white chocolate, but that’s okay because Lindt is my favorite anyway!
• Vanilla extract: A little touch to add a wonderful aroma to our hot chocolate.
• Half and half cream: Half and half cream, also known as 10% fat cream, is the perfect cream combined with 2% milk. This will add extra richness to our hot chocolate. Of course, you could use 18% or even 35% whipping cream if you want a really thick hot chocolate!
• Pecans: This is a unique special touch to our hot chocolate. Pecans are sweet and buttery and will add a good finish to the hot chocolate.
• Marshmallows: Just some cute mini marshmallows to complete our hot chocolate! You could use large ones if you want, but I don't know how you’d eat them! Please comment below if you have the answer to this!

You may be wondering why there’s no sugar in this recipe but I’ve shown it in the picture above. No, I didn’t forget to write it! White chocolate is quite sweet on its own, so as I was making the hot chocolate I didn’t find a need to add sugar. If you have a really big sweet tooth, then of course you could add a little touch of table sugar or your favorite sweetener!

How to Make Starbucks White Hot Chocolate

Add milk to a non-stick saucepan and turn the heat to medium to medium low heat. Stir the milk occasionally as it comes up to a simmer.

Once the milk is steaming, break and add the chocolate bar to the milk. Turn the heat to low and stir/whisk to melt the chocolate.

Stir/whisk occasionally to melt the chocolate and ensure the milk doesn't burn at the bottom. Be careful not to overheat the chocolate or milk, the chocolate may split if too hot.

Once the chocolate has completely melted, add vanilla and mix again. Then, add in the cream and whisk well, heat for 1-2 more minutes.

Pour to your serving cups and top with marshmallows. Optionally, roast the marshmallows with a baker's torch.

Using a microplane, grate some pecans and white chocolate.

Serve hot and enjoy!

Topping Ideas for Creamy Homemade White Hot Chocolate

I topped my Starbucks white chocolate hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and grated pecans and shaved white chocolate. Of course, you can top your hot chocolate however you’d like! Here are some ideas to switch things up!

• Whipped Cream (I recommend my Homemade Whipped Cream, and for even more professional results, check out how to use a whipped cream dispenser!
• Chocolate Whipped Cream
• Sprinkles
• White chocolate chips
• Cinnamon or Pumpkin Spice
• Crumbled candy cane

Serving Suggestions

You could have your drink with any baked good! I had mine with cookies I made from cookie dough from my Stuffed Cookies! I just didn’t stuff the cookies, and had them as chocolate chip cookies. It was so much fun to dip them in the hot chocolate! You could also enjoy some cinnamon buns, donuts, Buttermilk Pancakes, Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes, Espresso Brownies, or a warm and gooey Protein Skillet Cookie! Of course, this hot chocolate is amazing on its own!:)

Why White Chocolate Behaves Differently on the Stove

White chocolate is not chocolate in the way dark or milk chocolate is. It is made from cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids, with none of the cocoa solids that give the other two their color and their bitterness. That is why this drink finishes ivory rather than brown. It is also why the warning about overheating matters so much here: cocoa butter and milk solids separate at a much lower temperature than cocoa solids do, and once the mixture splits there is no bringing it back. Heat milk at medium to medium-low, drop straight to low the moment the chocolate goes in, and keep stirring.

It puts an honest limit on the swaps, too. You can heat a plant-based milk in place of the dairy, but the white chocolate itself still contains milk solids, so the result is lower in dairy rather than free of it.

What Goes In, What Does Not, and the Numbers

The method is genuinely short. Heat milk, 3 cups of it, in a nonstick saucepan with room to spare, over medium to medium-low, stirring now and then until it steams. Break in 7 to 8 squares of good white chocolate and turn the heat to low. Once it has melted completely, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract goes in, then 1/4 cup of half and half cream, and you whisk and heat for another 1 to 2 minutes. Pour into mugs, top with mini marshmallows, and that is it.

What is not in it is worth saying plainly:

• No pinch of salt. There is none in the ingredients list at all.
• No heavy cream in the base. It is 1/4 cup of half and half, which is 10% fat, and that is deliberately matched to the milk. You can reach for 18% or 35% whipping cream if you want it thicker, but the recipe as written is not a heavy cream drink.
• No cocoa powder and no cocoa solids, for the reason above.
• No alcohol. Nothing here is spiked, so it is a drink you can hand to kids as readily as to anyone else.

On the numbers: the recipe makes 2 mugs, and each one works out to 486 calories, with 35g carbohydrates, 32g fat, 15g protein, 4g fiber, 27g sugar and 174mg sodium. The protein figure is unusually high for a hot drink, and that is simply the milk doing the work, since 3 cups of it are split across just 2 mugs. The 27g of sugar comes almost entirely from the chocolate itself, which is exactly why no sugar is added anywhere in the method.

Pan Size, Nutrition Limits and Spiked Versions

A medium saucepan is the right size for this. Three cups milk plus the cream needs room to move without threatening to climb the sides, and a nonstick one makes the clean-up after melted chocolate far less painful. Once the chocolate goes in, reach for a whisk rather than a spoon. It breaks up the softening squares faster, which means less time over the heat and less chance of the mixture splitting.

On nutrition, this is a milk-heavy drink, so people reasonably ask about the calcium, potassium, cholesterol and vitamin content. I would rather not put numbers against any of those, because the per-serving figures published here are calculated for calories, carbohydrates, fat, protein, fiber, sugar and sodium only. What I can tell you is that roughly one and a half cup milk goes into every mug, and that is where the 15g of protein is coming from.