Mexican Style Champurrado

 Atole (from spanish atolli meaning hot) is a maza flour or hominy or maize flour based hot thick drink from Mexico.Chocolate Atole is known as Champurrado.Earlier I had made Mayan style hot cocoa where I had added flour along with cocoa powder and dried chipotles. This one uses chocolate bars preferably Mexican style like the Abuelita brand from Nestle or Ibarra and such others.

 Champurrado uses chocolate bars along with piloncillo and masa harina or maize flour.  I first came across this in Ben's blog. A simple search brought several recipes and I have adapted it from here.I have substituted brownsugar and molasses  for piloncillo and have used normal chocolate bars with added cinnamon and have made my version of Champurrado.

Ingredients:
Milk: 2 and 1/4 cup + more if  needed
Water: 1and 1/2 cups

Chocolate:1- 2 oz or as needed or 1 disk abuelita
Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp +as per taste (optional if using Mexican chocolate)

Aniseed: 1/4 tsp crushed
Brown sugar: 1/3 cup
Molasses: 1 tbsp
Crushed Aniseed: 1/4 tsp

Maize flour: 1/2 cup
Hot water: 1/4 cup

Preparation:

In a blender,whisk together maize flour and hot water till well blended. Transfer to a saucepan and add rest of the ingredients,whisk well and bring to boil whisking almost continuously.

Reduce heat to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes(keep whisking so it does not burn),until the chocolate and sugar are melted and the entire mix thickens a bit. Serve hot in mugs/cups straining if you like. I did not.

The drink is perfect for winter/rainy season.It is very filling and thick and as time goes it thickens more.After sometime,mine was thick as a porridge and I had to add more warm milk to it to get a liquid state.You can optionally garnish with choclate vermicelli/curls/shavings or even powdered cinnamon.I did not wait for anything,just had  warm mouthfuls.

Again,owing to weather conditions here (and also laziness),taking pics is a herculean task,so as usual the pics are not great.The taste is like a thick chocolate shake or porridge unless you use more milk.Read more about the Mexican chocolate here.Read about Piloncillo here. 

Last week during Diwali, I was enjoying at my mom's place and hence didn't post.But now I am back and you can see me almost regularly  or atleast till something else comes up  ;).