Frozen Mexican Hot Chocolate

Frozen Mexican hot chocolate is a hot chocolate made with Mexican cinnamon (ceylon) and ground cacao. Then it is frozen and blended. It is easy and delicious. The next time you make a Mexican hot chocolate make an extra to freeze and you will thank your past self for thinking ahead. You can increase its appeal by drizzling dulce de leche or cajeta and adding a shot of espresso. 

If you have been to southern Italy you can find something similar called caffé del nonno (grandfather’s coffee.)  Starbucks took this idea and made their ownn version known as a frappuccino. Of course, both of these have that shot of espresso but you can make the frozen Mexican hot chocolate without it. I prefer adding espresso, as it gives more flavor and depth to the chocolate.

I can write an encyclopedia of hot chocolates so if you are not aware that Mexican hot chocolate is a thing … please read my post here where I explain what  Mexican hot chocolate is. But in short, it is not melted chocolate, it is ground cacao. Ground cacao has more personality than chocolate.

I have been making this recipe for many years; I got the idea from the frozen hot chocolate served in NYC at Serendipity’s. Their version resembles more of an American cocoa hot chocolate mix but I decided to make the base from a Mexican hot chocolate mix. I have tried everything from substituting some of the milk with heavy cream, adding cocoa powder or chocolate chips, freezing some of the milk and adding the rest during blending, and so on. The final recipe is by far the easiest, quickest and most rewarding.

You only have to make one small alteration to your hot chocolate recipe that you already make; add 3 times more chocolate.

For example, for my everyday drinking chocolate I use 30 grams of Mexican hot chocolate mix for 1 cup of milk. For my frozen hot chocolate, I use 90 grams of Mexican hot chocolate mix for 1 cup of milk. If you freeze your normal hot chocolate (with the 30grams), without adding the additional chocolate mix, you can still freeze, blend, and enjoy. But it would lack some flavor and be somewhat watery and boring.

I also advocate against making a hot chocolate then blending this with ice in the blender. Although it will technically be a frozen hot chocolate, it will also be watered down.

The downside is that this is a prepare ahead treat, the upside is that you can keep hundreds of these in the freezer for weeks and have an instant dessert when you need it. Below is my stock of the frozen mix. I keep single serving sizes because it is easier to place in the blender when I am ready to serve. The only thing you have to do is let is soften for a few minutes then blend it. That’s it!! 

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