Chocolatito - Mexican Hot Chocolate - Super Mexican Recipes

Mexican chocolate is a unique treat. Not only is there chocolate, but it’s blended with cinnamon which gives it some charm. Hot chocolatito is a great combination with colder weather.

There are a couple ways to prepare it that I’m going to share here. The first is the charming old-fashioned way and the second is the fast, throw it in the blender and get a great cap of foam. It also skips the “nata”– fine layer of skin that warmed then cooling milk can get. (I love it, the kids don’t. If you don’t then just take a spoon or your finger and scrape it off the top. Nothing else changes.)

Ingredients:
Package of Chocolate (Abuelita or Ibarra)
Milk, 4 cups per round of chocolate.
Sugar (added to suit taste)
Cinnamon (added to suit taste, optional since it’s in the Abuelita)

Or:
Powdered cocoa powder, 2 Tablespoons *
Milk, 4 cups
Sugar or sweetener, to taste
Cinnamon (1 teaspoon)*

*These are just guesstimates, as I go by sight and how chocolate-y it looks to me. If you are doing it this way add more milk as needed, or whichever flavor is needed.

Let’s start with the old fashioned way. The pictures below are with a wooden tool called a Molinillo. It is as old as the chocolate drink itself. It is meant to agitate the liquid and stir up the chocolate as it melts in the bottom of the pan. You can see the chocolate breaking up and rising to the top. I bought the molinillo specially for this, as I had reverted to using my blender for making chocolatito all the time. It’s a bit nostalgic, and there is a nice consistency in the chocolate. I really needed a bigger pan and more milk to get full function out of it, but it was nice.

My husband also told me that if I was going to make a post on Chocolatito, I *MUST* use the molinillo. As it is true Mexican form. I agree and after adding these pictures and going through that process, I would do it again. If you live in Grand Rapids and want to try this, we do sell molinillos and they go for less than $5.00.

Our plate of pleasure-dunking Mexican pastries.

Abuelita chocolate is well-known and probably the best selling chocolate. Ibarra is another and it’s good too. Abuelita has dips in the circle so that it’s easier to find the breaks to cut it into smaller pieces.

One circle is good for four cups milk. I normally add a couple tablespoons more sugar and a shake or two of extra cinnamon.

I chop the tablet into smaller pieces.

Like this, so it gets broken up in the blender more easily.

You can see them tucked down waiting for the hot milk to be poured over.

Heat up your milk on a medium temperature, otherwise if you walk away and forget, (not that YOU would ever do that, but I have) it doesn’t scald and overflow the pan.

A portion of the hot milk going into the blender. You really don’t need to mix the whole 4+ cups into the blender. Just enough to make the chocolate melt and be smooth.