Best Chocolate Milk for Toddlers: Chocolate Milk Recipe

The only thing better than chocolate milk, is a chocolate milk you can feel good about feeding to your whole family! This is the best chocolate milk for toddlers, picky kids, and nostalgic adults! This delicious treat contains whole food ingredients for a taste of chocolatey goodness that kids know and love. 

We love chocolate milk around here, and with the addition of a dairy cow to our homestead this spring, we suddenly found ourselves with an abundance of milk!! After a few months of drinking plain milk, my kiddos were hoping for a bit more variety in our dairy products… enter: the best chocolate milk for toddlers.

A mason jar of chocolate milk next to a glass of poured glass of chocolate milk next to two red straws.

What You’ll Need

a stove showing the ingredients and tools you'll need to make chocolate milk with homemade ingredients.
  • Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • Maple syrup or organic cane sugar (can substitute white sugar if needed)
  • Vanilla extract
  • Salt (pinch)
  • Milk
  • Airtight container for your chocolate milk
  • Whisk
  • A tea kettle or other way to heat water for the syrup

How to Make this Chocolate Milk Recipe

Bring the water to a boil before removing it from the heat.

Add the cocoa powder, maple syrup, and salt to the hot water to form your homemade chocolate syrup.

cocoa powder being added to a homemade chocolate syrup for the best chocolate milk recipe.

Whisk together until thoroughly dissolved.

A whisk combining homemade chocolate syrup.

Add the chocolate syrup to the whole milk and stir again to combine.

Chocolate syrup being added to raw milk.

(Note: we use whole, raw milk for this simple recipe at our house, but store bought milk works just fine! You can certainly substitute for low fat milk if that is your family’s preference, however, the finished product will be much less creamy.

Add the vanilla extract to the chocolate milk and stir once more to combine.

Homemade chocolate milk.

Your homemade chocolate milk can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 5-7 days.

Before pouring your glass of chocolate milk, allow it to chill fully for the best flavor and shake well before serving.

a freshly poured glass of chilled chocolate milk for toddlers with a red straw.

(Note: choose the sweetener that best fits your family’s taste. White sugar, maple syrup, and organic cane sugar all work well in this recipe with very mild taste differences. However, with picky eaters, sometimes the smallest change in flavor can be difficult for them!

If you have a picky eater, consider making this with white sugar and slowly transitioning the sweetener you use to maple syrup for a natural sugar option. It’s a great way to work them up to a better option without tipping off their sensitive taste buds. You can also use less sugar as they get used to the flavor, ultimately making this recipe extremely customizable to your preferences.)

Why You Should Switch to Homemade Chocolate Milk

Control Over Ingredients

With the state of our food industry, it’s no surprise that homemade options have better, more simple ingredients. Store bought options tend to contain additives and preservatives that we don’t even have access to in our own kitchen.

That’s important to keep in mind when replicating a recipe exactly.

We likely would leave out, or swap, some of the ingredients.

In store-bought chocolate milks specifically, the ingredients include more added sugar than i’m comfortable with on a regular basis, artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup, as well as artificial flavors and thickeners. 

The chocolate syrups often have even more of these types of ingredients.

Opt for the simple ingredients in this recipe when you’re craving that carton of chocolate milk.

Cow’s milk plus unsweetened cocoa powder, sweetened naturally with maple syrup, balanced by a bit of salt and pure vanilla extract!

Saving Money in the Kitchen

Additionally, chocolate milk instead of whole milk tends to be more expensive. Making it at home is a great option for saving on the grocery budget.

Should I Make This Recipe Using Raw Milk?

A gallon jar of raw milk before being turned into chocolate milk.

The choice to consume raw milk is a personal family decision that should be made equipped with knowledge. Some states have strict raw dairy laws that can make access to raw milk difficult.

However, pasteurizing milk does reduce some of the benefits of raw milk, like the bioavailability of key nutrients and can affects the digestibility of the milk. 

If you want more information to inform your decision on this ingredient check out The Raw Milk Institute or the Campaign for Real Milk.

If you don’t feel comfortable using raw milk, or have difficulty accessing it, you can absolutely make this simple recipe using whole milk from your grocery store as well.

Benefits of Drinking Milk

jars of raw milk being chilled in the refrigerator.

It’s no secret that milk has been around a long time, with it going in and out of public favor in more recent years.

With young kids, though, milk has great vitamins and essential nutrients that help my active kiddos stay satiated and balanced throughout the day (hello hangry toddlers).

We’ve all heard that milk promotes strong bones, but did you know dairy milk also contains these important nutrients:

  • Protein
  • Fat
  • Calcium
  • Vitamin D
  • Riboflavin (B2)
  • Vitamin B12
  • Potassium
  • Phosphorus
  • Selenium

Additionally, cows fed organic or grass fed diets tend to have more optimal levels of conjugated linoleic acid, and Omega-3’s in their milk.

If you want more information about the nutrients that make up milk and what they do for your body, check out this article.

Flavored milk over regular milk is a great way to captivate chocolate lovers and young children alike, but the homemade option is so great for meeting nutritional needs in a guilt free way.

a glass of chocolate milk with a jar of chocolate milk and two straws.

Best Chocolate Milk for Toddlers: Chocolate Milk Recipe

The only thing better than chocolate milk, is a chocolate milk you can feel good about feeding to your whole family! This is the best chocolate milk for toddlers, picky kids, and the whole family!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 6 minutes
Serving Size 1 gallon

Ingredients

  • 1 Gallon Whole Milk
  • 1/2 Cup Water to make the chocolate syrup
  • 1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
  • 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup or Organic Cane Sugar
  • 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1/8 tsp Fine Salt

Instructions

  • Bring the water to a boil before removing from the heat.
  • Add the cocoa powder, sweetener of choice, and salt to the hot water to form your homemade chocolate syrup.
  • Whisk together until thoroughly dissolved.
  • Add the chocolate syrup to the milk and stir again to combine.
  • Add the vanilla extract to the chocolate milk and stir once more to combine.
  • Store in the refrigerator in a closed container for 5-7 days.

Notes

  • Plain white sugar can be substituted for the maple syrup or cane sugar.
  • If your children are very accustomed to store bought chocolate milk, consider adding additional sweetener until it is to their liking, and gradually using less sweetener as they get used to it. Even if you are using as much sugar, there are still no artificial ingredients in this recipe and you will always know what's in their drink!

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