Homemade Milk Chocolate | 4 Ingredients | In The Kitchen With Matt (2024)

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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.

Tools

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 produces an unappetizing chalky look to the top of the chocolate.

Step 4: Eat the 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.

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.

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.

Here are some other recipes you may like:

Chocolate Strawberry Fondant Roses

Chocolate Mousse

Gluten Free Caramel Brownies

Easy Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Granola Bars

Do you like this recipe? Share and Pin it! Please give it a rating and comment down below, I really appreciate it.If you make it tag me on Instagram @inthekitchenwithmatt. Also, sign up for the newsletter so you won’t miss out on any of my new posts and recipes.

Tags

cacao butter cocoa powder easy sweet

52 Comments

1. Jourdain

   July 14, 2024 at 12:00 pm·Reply

   I’m looking forward to trying this recipe out. I have a kiddo with many allergies so chocolate is often a no go. Is there any way to make this recipe using coconut milk (non-powdered)?

   • Matt Taylor

     July 15, 2024 at 10:02 am·Reply

     Hi there, no coconut milk won’t work there is too much water in it, which is a no no for chocolate. You can make dark chocolate though without the milk powder. Follow this other recipe, but I would still use cocoa butter. https://www.inthekitchenwithmatt.com/homemade-chocolate coconut oil works okay, but definitely not as good as cocoa butter.

2. Mindy

   January 27, 2024 at 1:56 pm·Reply

   Hi,
   I have non-fat milk powder, would that work the same as whole milk powder?

   • Matt Taylor

     January 27, 2024 at 5:54 pm·Reply

     Hi Mindy, that should be okay, although I always use whole milk powder.

3. Robinson

   October 4, 2023 at 7:33 pm·Reply

   Hi Matt.

   Have you tried adding something like vanilla to enhance the flavour?

   • Matt Taylor

     October 5, 2023 at 8:20 am·Reply

     Hi there, you could try adding a powdered vanilla, but liquid vanilla is a no-no, because of the water content. Water and chocolate don’t mix.

4. Sherry

   September 19, 2023 at 6:18 am·Reply

   Thank you for the recipe at the price of chocolate it makes a great replacement for chocolate chip cookies and homemade candy bar covering.

   • Matt Taylor

     September 19, 2023 at 8:28 am·Reply

     You are very welcome!

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