"Mexican" Hot Chocolate

This is not really a traditional Mexican hot chocolate recipe, but it does contain the crucial elements of vanilla, chile, and cinnamon that Canadians and Americans tend to associate with "Mexican" hot chocolate. It is incredibly rich and extremely thick. You're basically drinking warm ganache. Recipe as written, the implication is that this is meant to serve one, but I'd recommend divying it up between at least two or three people!

I wasn't sure whether I was going to like this hot chocolate or not. Honestly, even after drinking a bunch, I still wasn't entirely sure whether I liked it or not. I came to the conclusion that I do, in fact, like it. The flavour is quite nice and it's pleasingly chocolate-y, but I think it's too rich for me to want to drink more thank a few sips of it. I actually found I enjoyed it more when I used it to dip things in. It's got plenty of body and clings and coats things well. And the flavour is bold enough that it'll hold its own against anything you care to dip in it.

This makes a nice hot chocolate and it's wonderfully quick and easy to put together. But, after my experiences with it today, I actually think its true calling might be as chocolate fondue! I would be VERY keen on making this again and assembling an assortment of fruit, cookies, marshmallows, and various other goodies and having myself a little fondue party. And the great thing is that the added milk means it remains liquid over a wider range of temperatures so, once cooked, you should be able to serve it up without the need of any sort of portable heat source or fondue pot. I'm really quite excited to give this a go!

Watch this space for updates and, in the meantime, here's the recipe:

Mexican Hot Chocolate (or Fondue)

Slightly adapted from Joshua Weissman

Ingredients

• 1 (3") cinnamon stick
• 1 whole dried chile¹
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1/2 vanilla bean²
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• small pinch (maybe 1/16 tsp.) coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Toast the cinnamon stick and chile over medium heat.
2. Reduce heat to low and add milk and chocolate.
3. Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the paste. Add both the paste and the empty pod.
4. Stir in sugar and salt.
5. Continue to cook over low or medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (5-6 minutes).
6. Remove from heat and pour into mug(s), removing cinnamon stick, chile³, and vanilla pod as they surface.
7. Top with whipped cream, marshmallows, or other toppings of choice.

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¹ I used an arbol chile but I think a pasilla would've also worked well. ^Back
2 I was all out of vanilla beans, so I fished an expended vanilla pod out of my vanilla sugar jar and steeped the hot chocolate with that and then stirred in 1 tsp. of vanilla extract just after taking it off the heat. ^Back
3 If you like your hot chocolate with a little more kick, leave the chile in and give the mixture a quick whiz in the blender before serving to puré the chile into the mixture. ^Back