Have you ever had Ibarra? Or maybe some of you know it as Abuelita. It is a Mexican Hot Chocolate Drink made by blending the chocolate tablet, I call them pods, into four cups of hot milk for a delicious hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. Not too sweet or overly chocolate, we have really come to like drinking this treat during the colder months. One day while making it, I wondered to myself if I could possibly make my own Ibarra pods. Right then I had remembered that in my last Baker's Catalogue was a recipe for Cocoa Blocks- individual blocks of fudgie chocolate to melt into hot milk. I took their idea but poured them into cupcake liners to make the equivalent of the Ibarra pods. I got perfection.
Then I took it a step further and created other flavors like White Chocolate Spice... 
and Traditional Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows...
and White Chocolate Peppermint.
Every flavor turned out wonderfully and my homemade version of Ibarra was spot on- not too sweet, with a perfect touch of cinnamon. These have been handy to pop into a pot of hot milk on chilly mornings to accompany my family's breakfast and get them off to a warm start of their day.
Homemade Ibarra-Like Pods- Adapted from Baker's Catalogue
1- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
18 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
4 ounces un-sweetened baker's chocolate
1/4+1/8 tsp. cinnamon oil, not extract
red sugar and cinnamon hearts for decoration, optional
In a medium size saucepan, over medium heat, stir and heat cream and milk until just starting to bubble. Remove from heat and pour over both chocolates that are in a large bowl. Let sit 30 seconds then stir until smooth and all the chocolate is melted. Stir in the cinnamon oil. Divide evenly among 9 standard-sized paper cupcake liners. Sprinkle with red sugar and top with a cinnamon heart. Store pods in a sealed container in the refrigerator or freezer.
Making the drink, heat 4 cups of milk to a scald and add one pod. Whisk gently until pod is melted through and drink is hot. If desired add a pinch of cayenne pepper to each mug, stir and enjoy. Serves 4.
For Traditional Hot Chocolate: do not add the cinnamon oil but add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract instead. Top each pod with mini marshmallows. Store and make as above. Top each drink with more marshmallows if desired.
For White Chocolate Spice: Pour hot sweetened condensed milk and cream mixture over 22 ounces white chocolate chips. Let sit 30 seconds then stir until smooth. Add 4 tsp pumpkin spice, 1 tsp. allspice, 1 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg. Pour into twelve (12) cupcake liners and sprinkle with cinnamon and top with white chocolate chips. Since white chocolate is sweeter I chose to pour it into 12 liners as opposed to 9. Store and make as above. Top each drink with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon if desired. A splash of rum may be nice too.
For White Chocolate Peppermint: Make as you would the White Chocolate Spice but leave out the spices and add 3 tsp. peppermint extract (not oil). Top with Smooth&Melty Mints if desired or sprinkle with red and green sprinkles. Make and store the same as above.
These would be perfect for hostess gifts during the holidays and a really nice addition to Bake Sales.
More Beverage Recipes:
Hot Cocoa Mix
Mexican Chocolate
Sipping Chocolate
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Have a great weekend!
39 comments:
You are a genius! This is such a great idea and they look beautiful too. They would make great Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors.
Robin - you never cease to amaze me! What a great gift idea for the holiday season!
Oh my brillant friend, does your foodie brain ever take a break?
I have never had Ibarra... and the treat you make with is sound delicious!
I never would have thought of this. I'll definitely experiment with the hot chocolate pods for the kids. Thank you!
such a great idea - and with ingredients I can buy here, thanks very much.
I loved the Ibarra chocolate when I was a kid - my mother used to make Mexican tortilla ice box cake with it, so am glad to know that I can make it myself.
Ingenious! You always have the most clever ideas. They all sound wonderful, and I love the idea of making these for gifts-perfect!
masterful idea. white chocolate peppermint hot chocolate is the finest hot beverage i've ever had.
Wow, what a great idea! Perfect for gifts! And, as you know, anything chocolate works for me.
This is such a fabulous idea! And so much easier to transport up to the inlaws instead of my breakable mason jars.
I love, love, love this idea!
What do you think of making them in mini muffin cups for single serving pods?
Suzanne- I think that would work out fine. One serving of the size I made would be 1/4 of a pod plus one cup of milk. Try it and see.
How long can they be out of the fridge? How long till they go bad?
Sarah- The ingredients are like what you would use to make fudge so I think they could stay out of the fridge for a few days. I had made so many that I threw them in the freezer to store over a longer time. So if you are giving them as gifts, they could stay out and then let your recipient know to store them in the fridge when they got home.
What a cool & neat idea!!
MMMMMMMMMM,..;all the way!!
This is an awesome idea!
So clever!!! I don't like sweet drinks, but my kids would adore these.
I don't have time to read magazines either! They just pile up and annoy my husband, so I've let all my subscriptions go as part of our new cost conscious way of life. Sigh...
You always have such inventive ideas. Great gift for the holidays!
Great ideas, and now I'm craving hot chocolate!
I agree with everyone else. What a great gift idea. And the kids would love this as well.
LOL, I don't know how many times I read through this post. I kept getting confused by the photos, thinking they were cupcakes and then fudge. I got it! Finally! :)
That white chocolate spice is screaming my name. I just want to eat it like that...looks so good.
You know I'd never had that Abuelita chocolate. My blogging buddy Monica just sent me some last Friday. I'm waiting for the weather to cool. Now I'm really anxious.
~ingrid
My mom made these for us for Halloween - so good!
Putting them in the cupcake liners? Brilliant!!! Thanks for the tip :)
I'm definitely going to have to try these! I usually make hot chocolate from scratch, but this would be so much easier, and still healthier than buying the boxed instant hot chocolate. Also would make great additions to my Christmas treat boxes... Thanks for the great idea!
Hey, I made these today and blogged about them! They turned out great.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Yours is terrific and these pods look fantastic. I've never had the Mexican Hot Chocolate or anything with the pods. Being a huge Hot Chocolate fan, I have got to try these!
I made some Traditional Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows tonight and decided to try something a bit different with the packaging. There are only 2 of us at home so I figured that a 4 serving size pod would be too big for us so I thought I would use smaller cake forms (here in Sweden they have all sorts of sizes) so when I went to make them I remembered these tins that I have for tartlets and thought it would look nice in those so I made them individual servings. I have a picture of them here:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j15/knittedkharpern/SANY0112.jpg
I didn't bother oiling the forms but probably should have to make them easier to get them out but since they are just for us I figured it didn't matter. I had trouble finding the right chocolate here so I had to fudge it a bit on the cocoa percentages and ended up with 400 grams of cooking chocolate (46%) and 200 grams 85% Lindt chocolate bars. We have a chocolatier here in our town so I am going to check if they have some better selection of chocolate.
Thanks for the recipe, off to try them now.
Suzanne- glad they worked out ok. If you like it more chocolate flavored add 2 pods like my friend did. I could not view the picture but I am sure they are beautiful the way you described them. I have little tartlets like those too, they are from Netherlands and are for butter molds. I think that is what you are talking about- that size at least!
Thanks!
I am drinking it now. I think I probably will use less milk next time with my mini pods but it is very good this way! I bought a bunch of those tartlet molds at a flea market along with larger size ones for almond tarts but had never used them yet. Even not oiling them the chocolate came right out.
I am thinking about making some with maybe Kahlua to make them coffee flavoured, but I am unsure how much to put in. I think these will be perfect Christmas presents :)
Suzanne- I think any of these would be great dropped in a cup of coffee to make a mocha. I was thinking about adding instant espresso powder to a few next time. Nice chatting with you!
I don't think anybody's asked this one yet--have you tried these with homemade substitute for sweetened condensed milk? I usually make my own for baking since the cans are very expensive where we live.
Mama Squirrel- I think the homemade version of sw.con milk would work fine!
I finally made the Traditional Hot Chocolate pods today and had to make one tonight. All I can say is yummy! I'll be keeping this recipe and trying some of the other suggestions too.
Sweet P- Thanks for coming back and letting me know that they turned out great.
I tried this this afternoon. Unfortunately I think the chocolate I used may have been too fatty. UGH. We bought it in Germany (we are in Switzerland) and I wasn't familiar with the brand although it was organic. They were so oily. :( I don't think I'll be able to use them. I am going to try them again, this time with Swiss chocolate.
etoile-it does have to be semisweet and bitter sweet for it to reharden for the pods. That is too bad. You may have to try a mix of milk and dark, heavier on the dark to get these to work for you.
Hmm, so you think milk and dark chocolate would work? 50/50? It's hard here since I'm never sure what is what and they sell any chocolate that's not milk chocolate by the percentage of cocoa solids. We have lovely chocolate here, it seems ironic that I fouled this up in the country MADE of chocolate. lol 22 lbs./person per year is the average consumption here!
Oh, help! My White Chocolate Mint never hardened up! I made it exactly according to the recipe. The chocolate version I poured into a pan, let set, then cut it into single cup chunks. The white stuff is still gummy even after I put it in the fridge. It's like stiff frosting! (Delicious, though...) Any ideas?
Jennifer- Eek! Hmm, I am wondering why they did not harden. Did you use enough (22 ounces ) white chocolate? Try freezing them, I keep mine in the freezer, and pop them out when I need one. I also used Toll House White Chocolate chips. I wonder if some brands have more coco butter fat than others? I am sure it will still work except you will have to use a spoon to scoop them out of the liner. Let me know what happens.
No, I used the Nestle Toll House thinking they'd be higher quality and have more cocoa butter than the off-brands. Oh, well, maybe I didn't get the mixture hot enough before pouring over the chips or something. I just cut 1" squares, stuck a bamboo skewer through a marshmallow and into the block, dipped them in powdered sugar to keep them from sticking and wrapped them in green saran wrap tied with a ribbon. Still worked, just hard to work WITH! lol They're so yummy I'm going to try again! Maybe use the whole 24 oz in 2 bags?
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