From Like Water for Chocolate · 1992 · Pairing
Champurrado
Serve when
Pour it thick and steaming from the ranch kitchen — the chocolate the title is measuring itself against.
What to drink
The title is the recipe's thermometer: 'como agua para chocolate' — water at the rolling boil needed for chocolate, i.e., a person at the very edge of boiling over. The drink of Tita's kitchen is champurrado: Mexican drinking chocolate thickened with masa, spiced with cinnamon, whisked to a froth. A suggested pairing that the title itself pours.
What to drink
Thick, cinnamon-dark, and just shy of boiling — champurrado is the drink the book's title takes its temperature from, and the right cup beside any of Tita's recipes.
Ingredients
Method
- Whisk the masa harina into the water until smooth.
- Heat the milk with the cinnamon, chocolate, sugar, and salt until melted.
- Whisk in the masa slurry and simmer, whisking, until thick enough to coat a spoon, 8–10 minutes.
- Froth with a molinillo (or a whisk, vigorously) and serve very hot — water-for- chocolate hot.
Substitutions
- Masa harina: instant nixtamalized corn flour (the tortilla/tamal kind) is what thickens and flavours it. Fine cornmeal or a little cornstarch will thicken in a pinch, but they won't taste the same.
Beyond the recipe
Watch & shop
As an Amazon Associate, FlixNFood earns from qualifying purchases.