Using Chocolate in Mexican Dessert Dishes

Not all Mexican dessert recipes contain chocolate but a fair few do. Chocolate has a long and interesting history in Mexico and it is a popular snack, a well loved ingredient in Mexican dessert dishes, drinks and even used for flavoring in some savory recipes.

The cacao tree is a small evergreen and it thrives in the Mexico's wet, tropical regions. The fruits of the tree are six to fourteen inch wide red pods, which contain a mass of pulp, and about forty bitter white seeds, which turn brown when they are exposed to air. Two hundred cacao beans can give about a pound of cacao.

What is Mexican Chocolate?

Mexican chocolate comes in round, flat, cinnamon-scented discs, syrups or bars and you can use either that or normal chocolate in Mexican dessert recipes. The ingredients in Mexican chocolate are dark, bitter chocolate, cinnamon, sugar and sometimes nuts. Allspice or nutmeg is sometimes added and chili is another ingredient in some types of Mexican chocolate.

Chili might sound like a strange ingredient to have in a chocolate bar but the contrast is what makes the combination so wonderful. Smooth, sweet chocolate with a hint of fiery chili is really wonderful but you have to try it to find out!

Chocolate was first discovered by ancient civilizations in Mexico and was highly prized. It was even used as currency. Today chocolate is a global phenomenon and the United States spends almost a billion dollars a year importing cacao products.

The Best Mexican Desserts with Chocolate

Popular Mexican dessert recipe ingredients include cinnamon, vanilla, nuts, nutmeg, and each of these goes well with the flavor of chocolate. Chocolate is an important Mexican staple and it is used to make the famed mole sauces of Oaxaca dand Puebla.

Hot chocolate is traditionally whipped until frothy and is served as a late afternoon pick-me-up. Some of the Mexican hot chocolate and cold chocolate drink recipes can actually be termed desserts because they are so filling and rich! If strawberry dessert soup can be served as a Mexican dessert, why not hot chocolate? It is especially delicious with some Mexican cookies or a slice of Mexican cake on the side.

Flan can be flavored with chocolate, although the original Mexican flan recipe is scented with vanilla. Mexican chocolate cake with cinnamon is a wonderful dessert, which combines two of Mexico's favorite flavors, chocolate, and cinnamon.

Mexican chocolate mousse with burnt rum is a mouthwateringly good dessert using Mexican chocolate. Chocolate is also used in Mexican cookie recipes and Mexican cake recipes and if you are making Mexican dessert dishes such as these, adding some chocolate to the mixture can add another flavor dimension.

Different Types of Chocolate in Mexican Dessert Dishes

If you cannot find Mexican chocolate, you can substitute bittersweet or semisweet chocolate instead for a similar flavor. Many types of dark chocolate work well too because dark chocolate is usually semisweet. Milk chocolate tends to be very sweet and white chocolate does not actually contain cacao, only flavorings!

Chocolate is a comforting flavor and it is also known to release feel-good endorphins in the brain so feel free to add chocolate to your Mexican dessert dishes whenever you feel like a comforting pick-me-up.