piloncillo

I was planning on making macarons today but forgot to buy the essential almond flour! I was still in the mood for cooking so I rummaged through my pantry. I have a bag chock-full of sweet goodies. Marshmallows, coconut shavings, chocolate chips, and a piloncillo. Piloncillo is a Mexican cone of brown sugar with more unique flavors than regular sugar. I remember buying it a while back and having no idea what to do with it. After doing some research recently, I found that you crush it up to use it and substitute it for dark brown sugar in any recipe. Traditionally, however, it is used in some crazy drinks, like champurrado, an intense hot chocolate thickened with cornmeal. That freaks me out a little bit, so I am going to adapt it to make a Mexican hot chocolate for less adventurous folks (I drink Swiss Miss brand hot chocolate every morning).

Here it goes:

I took out a bunch of spices -- some traditional, some not. These are just what I like. Add more or less or different things if you want to try this yourself.

We have...

-cinnamon (half teaspoon)

-ginger (quarter teaspoon)

-fennel (about a quarter teaspoon of the seeds)

-anise (about 2 little sections of the star -- these are intense)

-cayenne pepper (just a pinch)

and of course...

-unsweetened cocoa powder (about a tablespoon)

I don't have a good mortar and pestle to use for this, so I'm using a spice grinder. Its main use in my house is grinding coffee, but once I made confectioner's sugar with it. Grind all of this together, but be careful -- there was a poof of cocoa when I opened mine).

Next is the piloncillo. I'm going to avoid any "that's what she said" jokes about grinding and being hard by just saying that the best method for me was the smallest side of a box grater. It made a fine powder that I want to sprinkle on everything. I used about a tablespoon of it, but use as much as you want. The goal is for you to mix it with the spice mix and have it taste good to you.

I'm not a vegan, but I love soymilk. It is flavored and feels fatty when it isn't. I drink vanilla because it is yummy as a drink, for dipping cookies, and for coffee with no extra sugar. Pretty genius. So I am going to use vanilla soymilk here, but feel free not to.

Simmer about a cup and a quarter of milk. Here is the fun part. Add the spices and mix them in, then, rolling a whisk between your hands, froth the drink. That step is optional, but I am a fan of some froth.

The drink turned out really yummy, but I have a caffeine issue so I'm going to save it and re-heat with breakfast.

The age of Swiss Miss may be ending.

xoxo,

allie

P.S. - these pictures were taken on my laptop. sorry about the quality. =)