Recipe

Champurrado

Recipe
No Questions Yet

Photo by aliyaleekong

Chef
aliyaleekong's Notes: Seriously, I feel like I’ve been missing something. Mexican chocolate. I mean I’ve had a Mexican hot chocolate before but have never experienced the pure form of it. The deliciously sugary...
Seriously, I feel like I’ve been missing something. Mexican chocolate. I mean I’ve had a Mexican hot chocolate before but have never experienced the pure form of it. The deliciously sugary, cinnamony thick tablets of sweet dark chocolate. It’s a serious love affair, and I’m going to find more and more reasons to sneak these into desserts…or my morning coffee. You’ve been warned – forgoing the recipe in favor of just eating the chocolate did not seem like an outlandish option after the first bite.

Atoles are a group of masa-based Mexican and Central American hot drinks with champurrado a specifically chocolate one. The drink consists of water or milk with masa, spices like cinnamon and/or anise, and chocolate in the case of champurrado. The masa acts as a thickening agent to create a drink that can range in thickness from a pudding-like consistency to a thinner liquid.

Expand Collapse

Serves 4

4 cups milk Ask a question about this ingredient

2 tablets Mexican chocolate, chopped into little pieces Ask a question about this ingredient

1/3 cup masa harina Ask a question about this ingredient

1/4 cup sugar Ask a question about this ingredient

1/2 teaspoon salt Ask a question about this ingredient

1 cinnamon stick Ask a question about this ingredient

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped (optional) Ask a question about this ingredient

In a saucepan, warm 1 cup of milk on low (want it warm enough to melt the chocolate). Pour into blender and add chocolate pieces and masa harina. Blend on high for 30 seconds, and strain back into the saucepan.
Ask a question about this step
Add remaining milk and ingredients and heat on medium-low. You want to slowly bring the mixture up. Once the mixture begins to bubble, reduce heat to low and let simmer 10 minutes until it thickens and the cinnamon and vanilla have infused. Serve immediately!
Ask a question about this step

3 Comments on Champurrado

Saksgyrl added 21 days ago

This reminds me of my childhood.nice.

aliyaleekong added about 1 year ago

Thanks, SallyCan. Yes, for this, masa harina. I love that you can vary the thickness, and for other traditional dessert puddings, I usually use a bit of cornstarch or rice flour.