Cinnamon Mocha Atole (zero added sugar)
For some reason fall season always comes with a need for comforting hot drinks. Maybe it’s the ambiance of it all: a distinct coldness in the air, daylight grows shorter, the changing color of the trees and time spent between lattes and good books makes it all a good time to take comfort on good memories maybe with a sprinkle of sweet nostalgia :) And the drink that I’ve found that creates this autumn nostalgia effect is my cinnamon mocha atole.
Atole has its origins from prehispanic times and its a very popular comfort beverage in Mexico. Based on a simple yet delicious must have ingredientes: finely grind corn flour, water or milk and spices; but when it comes to creative ways of making this recipe the sky is the limit; you can have many flavors and the texture can be as thick or thin catered to your taste. This is what makes the beauty of atole, there is always something for everyone :)
So now that you know a little more about atole, let me share that its not a complicated recipe to do and with the fall flavors available we will do the best and healthiest cinnamon mocha atole, so let’s star with our ingredients!
INGREDIENTS:
This ingredient measurements serves approximately 4 cups :)
Water 500ml (two cinnamon sticks, one clove and an anise star): we will place all of these ingredients in a pot together and set it in a low temperature. This spices are so wonderfully aromatic its the heart of this recipe.
Zero calorie sweetener blend brown 40gr: we will use this small quantity just as a base for our drink, later on we will add more but that would be to your personal taste
Corn starch 20gr/300 ml of cold water: this is the base for our atole and this ingredient will be the one that creates the thick velvety texture for our drink, but feel free to use more if you like a thicker atole.
Soy milk 500 ml: so I decided to go with soy milk for this recipe because it has a heavier texture but unlike oat milk that can overpower with its taste, soy milk tends to blend and “hide” better with other ingredients but without overshadowing our mocha flavor.
Nescafe Gold Espresso 4 gr: we will need just a couple of grams, just enough to compliment our chocolate but at the same time hitting those tasty coffee notes that we are so fond of, if you don’t have this exact brand if course you can use 4 - 6gr of your favorite instant coffee for a similar effect on taste.
Unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder 4gr: Again a little bit goes a long way and this is what will give us the mocha taste that we are looking for, is there anything better than coffee and chocolate together? “I don’t think so…” (Kevin’s voice from Home Alone)
Cinnamon powder: I like to add a little extra sprinkle of cinnamon to this recipe just to have that cinnamon presence but if the cinnamon sticks are enough for you feel free to skip this ingredient.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place your 500ml of water with the two cinnamon sticks, one clove and one anise star together in a pot on low heat until it reaches a low simmer, then add the 40 gr of brown blend and mix it until it dissolves with everything. You should see a nice brown see through mixture as a result :)
Once the low simmer has been reached, take away the anise star, the clover and the cinnamon sticks from the mixture since these spices are very aromatic they can easily overpower our atole if we let them sit for too long on the mix.
After this add your 500 ml of soy milk and slowly stir your mixture until it slowly reaches a slow simmer again.
After the simmer with the milk has been reached slowly sprinkle 4gr of Nescafe Gold Expresso or it can be 4-6gr of your favorite instant coffee. After stirring this into your mixture and making sure is completely dissolved add your 4gr of Hershey’s Cocoa Powder (unsweetened) and repeat the slow mixing of ingredients to implement everything together until there are no clumps and everything looks nice and uniform.
On a separate bowl pour your 300 ml of cold water and slowly little by little add your 20 gr of corn starch, make sure there are no clumps. I recommend for this step if you want to go a little extra, to put it all in a blender until all the corn starch has been properly mixed in order to prevent crumpling.
Lastly slowly add your corn starch mix to your pan mixture while stirring everything together until you see your mix coming together in a nice solid uniform color :) this is when you can add your extra cinnamon powder if you want a little stronger cinnamon aroma to your atole but you can skip this last step if you only like your cinnamon sticks essence.
Finally you can add a little more sweetener to the atole for your personal palatableness. For me this is the cherry on the top, taking the extra time to add little by little your sweetener until your reach that so called “bliss point” in which it has the perfect balance were it is not too sweet but sweet enough that makes you drink more than one cup!
I hope this recipe not only serves you to enjoy it with your friends and family but also as a starting point for inspiration to come up with you own personal recipe combining your favorite ingredients and also enjoy them with your loved ones while making some beautiful memories :)
Kindly,
Tayde