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Chocolate Atole
Atole Champurrado Grind tortilla dough well. Whip it up with some water and pour into an earthen pot. Boil it down until it's thick. Then add chocolate, sugar and much water. When chocolate is cooked beat the drink well and serve steaming hot and frothing.
A thin masa gruel enriched with chocolate — champurrado in its most stripped-down form. The original assumes you have fresh tortilla dough on hand and gives no quantities at all, so the proportions below are the part you have to supply.
- The dough"Tortilla dough" here is masa nixtamalizada, fresh corn dough from a tortilleria. Dried masa harina works: whisk about 1/2 cup into 2 cups cold water until no lumps remain. Ordinary cornmeal is not a substitute — it has not been nixtamalized and will taste raw and grainy.
- No quantities givenThe recipe is proportionless. A workable starting point is 1/2 cup masa, 4 cups water total, 2 to 3 oz chocolate and sugar to taste, which yields about four cups — two generous servings.
- The earthen potAn olla de barro holds heat evenly and is traditional, but any heavy-bottomed saucepan does the job. Masa scorches on thin metal; keep the heat moderate and stir across the bottom of the pan, not just around it.
- Cook the masa before the chocolate goes inThe first boil-down is what cooks the starch and kills the pasty flavour. Give it a good 15 to 20 minutes at a bare simmer, stirring often, until it coats the spoon.
- What kind of chocolateThe closest modern equivalent is Mexican table chocolate — Ibarra, Abuelita, or an artisanal tablet from Oaxaca: coarse-ground cacao already cut with sugar and usually cinnamon. The original simply says "chocolate," and calls for sugar separately. If you use unsweetened baking chocolate you will need considerably more sugar, and the drink will be smoother and less rustic.
- "Much water"The masa base is deliberately overthick so it can be let down. Add the water gradually after the chocolate, judging by eye; champurrado should pour like heavy cream, not like pudding.
- Frothing"Beat well" means a molinillo rolled between the palms, or a whisk. An immersion blender gives more foam but a thinner, less silky body. Do not let the drink boil hard once the chocolate is in — it will separate and catch.
- LumpsIf the masa seizes into lumps, pass the base through a fine sieve before the chocolate goes in. Once chocolate and sugar are added, straining is much harder.