Atole

Atole is a traditional Mexican drink enjoyed during the winter months (mostly December).  It's comparable to hot chocolate, but it's not.  The base is actually made from corn meal, sugar, and cinnamon.  And if you add chocolate to it, it's call champurrado.  Now before you decide that a drink made from corn sounds like the weirdest thing you've ever heard of, consider horchata.  Horchata is another Mexican drink made from rice water and cinnamon.  When I tell people what horchata is made of, they make the "that sounds disgusting" face.  But then they try it and realize how amazing it is.  Atole is like that.

Growing up, we never got to experience atole.  But thanks to my sorority sisters in college, we had it every year during our Christmas dinner.  And my soon to be grandmother-in-law makes a strawberry version.  My extended family does an annual pozole night, so my fiance made this as our "side to share".  

Ingredients

- 8 TBL masa seca (if you want to go all out, use dried corn kernels and grind them with a molcajete)

- 4 cups water plus an additional 1/2 cup

- 1 piloncillo cone (not the little ones)

- 1 vanilla pod

- 2 cinnamon sticks

- 6 cups of milk

- 1 brick of Mexican hot chocolate [optional - for champurrado]

Notes: 

Piloncillo cones can be found in most grocery stores with the other Mexican spices, which is usually near the produce section for some reason.  They come in prepackaged bags of two.  They can also be found in bulk at most Mexican markets.  

Piloncillo cone

Cinnamon can always be found in the spice section at grocery stores, but if you go to the Mexican spice section, they're usually much cheaper.

I used a whole vanilla bean pod for this recipe... vanilla that my mom bought me when she went to Barcelona... oh the irony.  Anyway, if you have access to vanilla bean pods, or are willing to put forth the expense, do it.  Vanilla extract just can't compare.  If you're using extract instead, 1 tablespoon should do it.

Vanilla bean pod

1. Place the 4 cups water, piloncillo, cinnamon and vanilla in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Allow to come to a low boil.  Stir occasionally until the piloncillo has dissolved.

Slightly dissolved piloncillo

Fully dissolved piloncillo

2. While waiting for that to boil, in a separate bowl, mix the masa and additional 1/2 cup of water, adding one tablespoon of masa at a time.  The goal of this step is to create a paste so that when you mix it in with the rest of the liquid.  If you dump it in all at once it'll form into clumps that are pretty difficult to separate (like when you pour pre-packaged hot chocolate all at once in to your cup of hot water).

3. Add the milk and masa paste to the sauce pan and increase heat to medium high.  Add the chocolate now too if you're using it.  One it starts to foam, reduce to medium and use a milonillo to froth it up like you would Mexican hot chocolate.  And then continue to stir until everything is dissolved and well blended.  Stir constantly otherwise it will start to burn on the bottom of the pan.  You might see some slightly browned bits rise up from the bottom, and that's fine.  You just don't want it to be black burnt.

4. Once everything is blended, taste for sugar.  You might need to add a little extra sugar, but you don't want it too sweet.  Serve while hot.

If you let the atole sit, it'll start to form that weird film that you get when you heat milk.  You can always remove that or just reheat and let it melt back in with the rest of the atole.  We prepared out atole about 3 hours before it was actually served - just put the pot back on over medium low heat and get everything heated through again.  One of my uncles wanted champurrado, so we added a small chunk of chocolate to the pot as we were reheating.

Enjoy!