There's no better treat than hot chocolate on a chilly, dreary day. While instant hot chocolate is fast, making it from scratch is also quick and easy and tastes much better. It doesn't take many ingredients and can be made in one pot. You can also dress hot chocolate up to impress friends, or keep it simple to enjoy yourself.

Homemade hot chocolate recipe

You start off by adding three parts milk to one part heavy cream into a saucepan over medium heat. Three cups of milk will make about four or so servings of hot chocolate.

Next you add two ounces of chopped chocolate and a little bit over a teaspoon of cocoa powder per cup of milk. Next comes sugar. You can use any type of sugar you like, adding about 2.5 teaspoons per cup of milk.

To finish it off add a hint of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Mix until everything is melted together.

Now you can serve the hot cocoa with whatever toppings you like, whipped cream marshmallows or even shaved chocolate.

A brief history of hot chocolate

The delicious treat traces its history back thousands of years to the Aztec and Mayan cultures in South and Central America. The drink was made by grinding up cocoa seeds. Since it predated sugar coming to the region it was a more bitter drink. Europeans brought cocoa beans and chocolate back with them after coming to the Americas, and it was in Spain where the drink began to more closely resemble the treat you're used to.

The drink was around long before chocolate bars were invented in the middle of the 1800s.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Craving hot chocolate? Here's how to easily make it at home.