In this Instructable, I will show you how to make milk chocolate with cocoa powder. This easy homemade milk chocolate recipe only requires 4 ingredients. While this doesn't taste exactly like storebought chocolate which is processed from cocoa beans and not cocoa powder and uses big machines, it is still fun to make at home and tastes great. But be warned if you are expecting it to taste exactly like storebought mass-produced chocolate, you will be disappointed. Homemade milk chocolate using cocoa powder is super easy to do, if I can do it, you can do it. Let's get started!

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Follow the easy steps below or watch the video tutorial or do both!

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cocoa butter or coconut oil (110g)
3 Tbsp. whole milk powder (24g)
1/3 cup cocoa powder (35g)
3/4 cup powdered sugar (90g)

Tools:

Pot
Large bowl (pyrex or metal)
Spatula
Chocolate bar mold or even an ice cube tray will work

Step 2: Melt the Cocoa Butter

Begin by placing a pot filled a third of the way with water on a burner and set the heat to medium-high. Place a large pyrex or metal bowl on top. This is a basic double boiler.

Make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. The way this works is as the water heats the steam hits the bottom of the bowl warming it gently and evenly.

Add the cocoa butter or coconut oil to the bowl and stir occasionally until all melted.

Step 3: Add and Stir

Once the cocoa butter is melted, you can turn the heat down to medium-low. Make sure to sift the cocoa powder before putting it into the bowl of melted cocoa butter. This helps prevent any lumps. Then mix it in with your spatula.

After the cocoa powder is mixed in, you can turn the heat completely off. Then add in the milk powder and stir until completely incorporated.

Follow that up with the powdered sugar which is added a third of it at a time until all incorporated. If you want it less sweet don't add in as much, or if you want it completely sugar-free, leave it out altogether.

Once all the ingredients are combined and the heat is off, keep stirring for about 5 minutes.

Step 4: Stir, Pour, Cool

After the 5 minutes are up, take the bowl off the pot of hot water and set it somewhere like a counter or table with a hot pad. Keep stirring for another 5 minutes. This helps to create as smooth of a texture as possible and cool the chocolate down slowly, creating a better texture for the chocolate.

I am not going to actually temper this chocolate, I will do a whole different Instructable on how to temper chocolate.

NOTE: Chocolate manufacturers do a process called "conching" which involves the liquid chocolate being poured into a big drum with cement-like thick wheels that turn and press and crush and smooth the chocolate. Kind of like a rock tumbler but for chocolate. They will leave it in there for several hours sometimes even days. We can't really replicate that very well at home, so this is the best we can do. Another reason why homemade chocolate won't be as smooth or as good as store-bought.

Once done, pour the chocolate into your chosen mold, or even ice cube trays. Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then it can go in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

NOTE: Don't put it in the fridge right away, if it chills too quickly, sometimes it will cause some of the cocoa butter solids to separate and produces an unappetizing chalky look to the top of the chocolate.

Step 5: Eat That Chocolate!

Once the chocolate sets, you can eat it. Remove it from the mold and give it a taste. If you look closely at the third picture with the broken piece of chocolate you can probably see a little bit of the "grainy" texture. You really can't get rid of that with this type of homemade chocolate, again no commercial "conching" machine and we used cocoa powder instead of the actual cocoa bean/cocoa nibs.

But, it still tastes great and has a good chocolate flavor. I don't really mind the little bit of "gritty" taste. Again, if you are expecting this to taste exactly like store-bought chocolate, you will be disappointed.

And there you go, fun homemade chocolate that only requires 4 ingredients. Enjoy!

NOTE: Even without tempering, this chocolate stores fine and cooler room temperatures. My home is 70 degrees right now, haha. But if your house is warm, you may want to store it in Tupperware or something in the fridge.

You may print the recipe here if you like.