Christmas Warmup
Coffee and Chocolate anyone? These hot drinks are perfect for your Holiday or Christmas morning.
- Café de Olla, coffee from the pot, is flavored with cacao, cinnamon and sugar.
- Mexican chocolate – always a favorite for children.
- Atole de Pinole a delicious cold-weather drink, Pinole is a corn flour made from toasted kernels of corn.
Cold weather, maybe a snowy morning and what better than a flavorful hot beverage around the fireplace or Christmas tree while opening gifts.
Let’s get started.
Chocolate Mexicano. Pan Dulce baked by granddaughter Michelle McManaman
Chocolate Mexicano
Ingredients
1 3 oz tablet Mexican chocolate
4 cups milk (low fat)
Preparation
Over medium heat place 4 cups of milk and 1 tablet in a medium size pot.
Mix constantly with a whisk to produce froth until the liquid starts boiling.
Remove from the heat, serve in cups
Café de Olla con Chocolate de Metate**
Ingredients
6 cups water
2 – 4 in cinnamon sticks
3 whole cloves
4 tablespoons grated piloncillo or packed brown sugar
2 tablets Mexican chocolate
1 cup ground coffee
Preparation
Warm water in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add cinnamon, cloves, piloncillo (or brown sugar) and chocolate. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Subsequently add the coffee, stir, and turn off heat. Wait until the coffee settles to the bottom of the pot. Strain and serve hot.
Atole de Pinole
Ingredients
Makes 1 cup
1 cup water
2 segments of Mexican chocolate wheel (1 to ¾ oz)
¼ cup pinole flour
Preparation
In saucepan boil the water, add the chocolate and whisk to dissolve. In small increments, add the pinole, keep stirring and simmering for about 5 minutes or until thickened. Serve hot. It’s that easy.
**Notes
A Metate is a Mesoamerican mortar and pestle. It’s rectangular, flat and slightly curved made of volcanic stone. Chocolate de Metate is a chocolate paste made from cacao, cinnamon, and sugar using a metate. The paste is formed and allowed to dry. The most availabe commercial brands are Ibarra and Abuelita, found in most supermarkets. However, you can find Artisanal Mexican chocolate on the internet
Pinole is made from toasted and ground maize, which is mixed with ground canela (cinnamon) and sugar. As kids we purchased Pinole as a sweet treat from the corner grocer. The grocer would scoop it from a bin and sell it to us in small portions in a paper cone. It cost pennies. I only hope it doesn’t become a food of the past so I’m introducing it to my grandkids. I’ll make an atole of Pinole with Mexican chocolate. It’s delicious, filling and includes nutrients like protein, amino acids, fiber and antioxidants.
Mexican atoles are hot drinks thickened with maize and flavored with just about anything you can imagine. Champurados are atoles made with masa used for tortillas where as Pinole is composed of toasted kernels and usually premixed with canela and sugar.
The Tarahumara indigenous people in the northern sierras of Mexico are super athletes who run 50 to 100 miles for recreation. World runners learned the Tarahumara consume pinole as a beverage and use it as fuel for their runs. Now pinole recipes and power products are advertised in runner magazines. So run to your Mexican grocers and get some Pinole for the winter season. Let’s get started and make us some atole.
Kids love to lick it from the palm of their hands, it’s that good. You’ll likely find Pinole at you Mexican grocer but if not, health food and online stores sell it. Atoles can be made with dairy, almond or soy milk or plain without chocolate. It makes a great ingredient for cookies and people use it to make sweet tamales.
Buen Provecho
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