Chocolate first
Tablets carry an instruction along the lines of one three ounce tablet to four cups of milk, and most people who follow it find the result thin. In practice the cup people actually want is closer to three quarters of an ounce to a full ounce of chocolate per eight ounce mug.
A granulated blend like ours is easier to steer: about a heaping tablespoon and a half per cup, into hot milk. Milk, not water. Instant sachets are the ones built for water, and this is not one of them.
Milk, water, or both
Straight chocolate is usually all milk. Champurrado is traditionally cut, which keeps it from turning heavy once the masa is in.
Half milk and half water works. So does four cups of milk to two cups of water, which is the version that tastes closest to a market stall cup. Neither is wrong, and the difference is smaller than the difference the masa makes.
The masa is where it goes wrong
Dry masa dropped into hot milk seizes into lumps on contact, and no whisk breaks them afterward. What you do instead takes one extra bowl.
- Put the masa in a bowl with cold water and stir it to a smooth slurry.
- Check it against the light of the bowl for dry pockets and work them out.
- Pour the slurry into the pot through a strainer if you want to be certain.
- Stir constantly from that point on.
Use masa ground for tortillas rather than the coarser tamal grind. The tamal grind is meant to hold its texture, which is the opposite of what a drink needs.
How much masa
A third of a cup of masa slaked in a cup of cold water thickens roughly three and a half cups of liquid. Scaled up, that is about a cup of masa per liter of milk.
Start at the lower end. Champurrado keeps thickening for the whole cook and then thickens again as it cools in the mug, so a pot that looks right on the stove will be stodgy by the time it reaches the table.
Fifteen to twenty minutes, and the foam
Give it fifteen to twenty minutes on a low heat once everything is in, stirring the bottom. That is what takes the raw edge off the masa.
The foam on top is what a molinillo is for. Roll the handle between your palms in the pot until the surface climbs. A whisk gets you most of the way there and so does a blender, carefully, once it is off the heat.
Slake the masa in cold water, start light on it, and stir the pot the whole time.
