Homemade Milk Chocolate | 4 Ingredients | In The Kitchen With Matt

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I will admit it, I am a bit of a chocolate addict. I love all things chocolate! This homemade milk chocolate recipe is no exception, it is so yummy!

One thing I love about this homemade milk chocolate is that it only requires 4 ingredients. And the process is nearly identical to this 3 ingredient homemade dark chocolate recipe.

While this doesn’t taste exactly like store-bought mass produced chocolate, it is nice to know all the ingredients that are put into it. Also, mass produced chocolate uses cacao beans/cocoa nibs and special machines which produce a silky smooth chocolate, something that is hard to replicate at home.

So be warned, if you make this homemade milk chocolate recipe and expect it to taste just like store-bought chocolate, you will be disappointed. But homemade milk chocolate using cocoa powder is fun and easy to make, and still tastes great. If I can do it, you can do it. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Gather the ingredients

In order to make homemade milk chocolate, you need just 4 simple ingredients:

Cocoa/Cacao Butter – Or you can use coconut oil as I did in that other chocolate recipe, but cocoa butter makes better tasting chocolate. It can be found online or at stores like Whole Foods.
Whole Milk Powder – This is how we get homemade milk chocolate. DO NOT use actual milk the water in it, will ruin the chocolate. It is found online or at the supermarket.
Cocoa powder – Use unsweetened cocoa powder, like the Hershey’s brand.
Powdered sugar – Also known as icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar. This is the sweetener.

Stacks of homemade milk chocolate on a white plate.

Tools

Pot with water
Large bowl (Pyrex or metal)
Spatula
A chocolate bar mold or even an ice cube tray will work

Step 2: How to make homemade milk chocolate with cocoa powder

Large glass bowl on a pot on a black stovetop burner with cacao butter in it.

Place a pot filled a third of the way with water on a burner. Set the heat to medium-high. Place a large pyrex or metal bowl on top of the pot. 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 which melts the contents of the bowl.

Melted cocoa butter in a large pyrex bowl.

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

Cocoa powder in a bowl of melted cocoa butter.

Once the cocoa butter is melted, 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, turn the heat completely off. Then add in the milk powder and stir until completely incorporated.

Large glass bowl of homemade melted milk chocolate.

Next, add the powdered sugar 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 3: Stir and pour the chocolate into a mold

Red spatula stirring homemade melted milk chocolate in a large glass bowl on a wooden table.

Take the bowl off the pot of hot water and set it somewhere like a counter or table with a hot pad under it. 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 recipe post 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.

If you plan on making homemade chocolate quite a bit, it might be worth investing in something like this chocolate refiner/melanger which is pretty much a mini conching machine. And it will produce much smoother chocolate.

Bowl of melted milk chocolate being poured into a silicone mold.

Once done stirring, 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 produce an unappetizing chalky look to the top of the chocolate.

Step 4: Eat the homemade milk chocolate!

Hand holding a bar of homemade milk chocolate.

Once the chocolate sets, you can eat it. Remove it from the mold and give it a taste. It will probably have a little bit of the “grainy” texture/taste. 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.

Hand pointing to a piece of broken homemade milk chocolate.

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 at and cooler room temperature. 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.

If you love chocolate, check out this other recipe on how to make chocolate from cocoa beans, it shows the process from cocoa pod to chocolate bar.

How long does homemade milk chocolate last?

This homemade milk chocolate will last several weeks or even months at room temperature if it isn’t too warm inside like around 70 F. Or store it in the fridge. You can even freeze it if you like where it will last several months as well.

Homemade milk chocolate pin for Pinterest — (Pin it!)

Here are some other recipes you may like:

Chocolate Strawberry Fondant Roses

Chocolate Mousse

Gluten Free Caramel Brownies

Easy Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Granola Bars

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