- [John] Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen
we're making an easy, delicious Mexican hot chocolate.
So let's get started.
First off,
I'm gonna chop four ounces of bittersweet chocolate.
If you wanted to, you could use chocolate chips for this,
but it's a nice moment to use a silky delicious chocolate.
My mom's from Mexico and we grew
up having this hot chocolate like on the regular.
It was not a daily event,
but at least a couple times a week we would have this,
and it's one of my favorite childhood memories.
And, by the way,
this is the time to splurge on some nice chocolate.
Look for 70 or 80% chocolate if you can't find bittersweet.
My chocolate's chopped, I'm gonna set this aside.
Grab a pot and we're gonna get to work.
Three cups or 720ml of a nice whole milk.
If you want to cut down on the dairy
you can totally use almond or oat milk for this,
like any of your favorite non-dairy alternatives
should work fine.
Now we want three tablespoons of cocoa powder.
I'm using Dutch processed.
You could use natural if you want.
Now we want three tablespoons of sugar.
If you wanted to, you could have a fourth tablespoon in.
In general, Mexican hot chocolate,
just in case you don't know,
in my humble experience, is more flavorful
because there's cinnamon, often there's a little bit
of cayenne in the back just to give you some warmth
and it's often sweeter as well.
So especially if you're using the store-bought
like Abuelita brand, it is like a sugary hot chocolate,
which is why kids love it.
One teaspoon of cinnamon, a must,
a pinch of cayenne.
It could be as big a pinch as you want, but no more.
And one teaspoon of vanilla.
Mmm, this is gonna be so good.
Alright, wait a second.
Grab a whisk.
But you want a narrow whisk.
And actually you don't want this whisk at all.
No, for this,
you want a traditional Mexican whisk, a molinillo, but one,
my pronunciation might be off on that, but two
I don't have mine.
Mine is in Los Angeles at my mom's house.
And to be honest, I called her right before this video.
(phone ringing)
- [John's Mum] Hello.
- [John] Hi. I'm making Mexican hot chocolate
on the channel today and I have a question.
- [John's Mum] Yeah.
- Remember the special whisk we had, the molinillo?
- [John's Mum] Yeah.
- Whatever happened to it?
- [John's Mum] I have no idea. They break easily.
- I know. I think it had little,
didn't ours have like little wooden rings connected to it?
- [John's Mum] Oh, they all all do.
- Yes. They kind of jiggle. Yeah.
- [John's Mum] Yeah
- I think Eric broke it.
I do need one
but it's not not gonna be in time for this video.
I'll use another whisk.
- [John's Mum] Yeah. Okay.
- Alright. Well, I love you.
- [John's Mum] Love you too. Bye.
- Bye-Bye. A molinillo is a traditional Mexican whisk.
They're really beautiful.
They're made of wood and it's almost like a mace.
And you do this and it is the most fun thing
in the world for a kid to use this.
And it just whips it up.
And what happens is you're gonna whip it
up over heat and it froths everything up.
So your hot chocolate has like a nice frothy top.
It's really amazing.
So buy one, buy one, I tell you.
This is nice and smooth.
I'm gonna place this over medium heat
and get it really nice and steamy.
The nice thing is you can just place this
over medium heat and stir occasionally.
It doesn't have to be constantly.
Most of you probably know this already,
but chocolate comes from the "new world".
It was imported to Europe and they became obsessed with it.
We went to one of the palaces
in England and they actually had hot chocolate rooms.
They had a special room just for making chocolate
for all the nobles and aristocrats who were in the palace
because it was like such a special, amazing treat.
It was like, I don't know what trend I could describe it to
but it was like when coffee was brought
over or cigar or tobacco was brought over
it was like chocolate, a new flavor.
(whisk stirring)
So although this recipe has changed many times
over the years, this is like giving a little bit of homage
to the originators of this beautiful, delicious flavor.
Once your mixture is nice and steamy,
but not coming to a boil, you don't want it to boil,
you're gonna add all that delicious chopped chocolate in.
So plop that in and stir it up just until it's melted.
So in case you're wondering, this is not quite choncorado,
which is similar to Mexican hot chocolate
but it's gonna be thickened
with a masa and just have like creamier and thicker.
And you're also gonna use,
instead of sugar, you'd use piloncillo,
which is like a traditional, like more raw form of sugar.
You get them these little cones.
Oh, okay.
(whisk stirring)
This is hot and steamy.
We're ready to pour and garnish.
Marshmallows are optional, but I could never say no.
Mmm, that is so thick and creamy and the complexity given
with just that little bit of cayenne and the cinnamon,
it's really lovely
and it brings back all the childhood memories.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my chocolate playlist.