Gruel Intentions

I made Atole and was a bit disappointed. Instead of a beverage, it was a corn porridge. Tasted good, but I'd been expecting a drink. A little research and experimentation brought better results.

A few notes for those of you who want to try it:

Use half the amount of masa given, if you want something drinkable, rather than spoonable.

For more authenticity use piloncillo for the brown sugar. It comes in solid cones -- just grate off the amount you need.

For champurrado (chocolate atole), chop or grate a cake of Mexican chocolate (like Ibarra or Abuelita) and add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Just before serving whisk the atole or use a molinillo to make it frothy.

I think all the recipes in the book serve 4. This one is pretty easy to scale back to serve 2