[honey dripping] [drums beating]

- Hi, I'm Stephen, and I'm a level one chef.

- Hi, I'm Daniel, and I'm a level two chef.

- Hi, I'm Saul,

I've been a professional chef for the past 20 years.

[drums beating]

- My hot chocolate is inspired by my sister's recipe

that she would make at Christmas.

So, sis, I'm gonna do my best.

Don't make me hear it at Christmas.

- Today, I'm making a hot chocolate

that is thick, rich, and it's got some booze in it.

'Cause why not?

- Today, I'm making a Mexican hot chocolate,

aka champurrado.

I'm gonna make my own almond milk.

And I'm going to top it up with some churros.

Do I need to tell you it's gonna be delicious?

[bells ringing]

- All right, let's get started with the chocolate.

- We're gonna start with the hot cocoa powder.

This is the most important part of the entire recipe.

Without this, you're just drinkin' hot milk.

- Now, I think using real chocolate is the way to go.

And when you couple it with some cocoa powder,

the whole thing is just gonna be next level.

And today, I've got some

high quality, semi-sweet dark chocolate.

- The Mexican chocolate that I'm using today

it's Ibarra, straight from Guadalajara, Jalisco.

The difference between

this chocolate and the other chocolate,

this one has like a granulary sugar.

It has cinnamon in it.

And this is how you break it apart.

[tapping knife]

Now, this is what I'm talking about.

You see that crystallation?

Is that even a word, crystallation?

- I'm gonna use half of the chocolate bar

in the actual mixture,

and then the other half,

I'm going to cut up as well for the topping.

Next, my spice mixture.

Since it's hot cocoa,

the majority of the mix is going to be...

- [Stephen and Daniel in Unison] Cocoa powder.

- The reason I use hot cocoa powder

is just because it's simple.

Maybe 10:00 PM, you just throw it together.

And by 10:01, you're the happiest man in the world.

A pinch of salt.

And we're using the whole thing of azucar, sugar,

for my Spanish viewers.

I'm learning Spanish.

- Cinnamon is my go-to in all things.

So, I'm gonna do a pretty hefty dash of cinnamon here.

Next is...

- [Stephen and Daniel in Unison] Nutmeg.

- [Stephen] I don't know what it adds,

but you can tell when it's gone.

It's like a best friend.

- Time for some cloves. Just like a small little pinch here.

Allspice. It's like a bouquet in your nose hairs.

And that's it.

- My cocoa mix is done.

- There you have it.

My chocolate for my Mexican hot chocolate.

- Ain't gonna lie to you people, this smell like Christmas.

- It's time for some milk.

- We're gonna be using whole milk.

Funny story, I'm actually lactose intolerant.

But now for a little treat,

I treat myself to the whole milk.

I deal with the consequences later.

[Stephen laughing]

- Today, I'm using a mixture of whole milk and heavy cream.

I've used just milk before, and that's fine,

but I find that if you add a little bit of heavy cream

it really does bring

a more velvety mouthfeel and richness to the hot chocolate.

- Today, we're making almond milk.

- Oh!

- He's makin' his own almond milk?

- It's gonna add the nutty flavor to the hot chocolate,

and also it's gonna make it not so dense.

I'm gonna need four cups of water.

Now, you wanna dump the almonds.

And we're gonna let it sit for 12 hours.

That's right, 12 hours.

- I'm using whole milk

just because it's a little bit fattier.

While this is warming up, I've got heavy cream,

I'm not gonna use all of it I don't think.

I'm probably going to go with half a cup.

- [Saul] It's been 12 hours.

So we're just gonna strain it right here.

The almonds, they kind of got a little bit more fluffy.

- Wanna rich hot chocolate,

especially if I'm mixing alcohol in it

which is going to cut through the fat anyway.

I want something that's a little more bold

to take away from the fact

that I will inevitably probably be getting, getting drunk.

- Now, it's time to blend our almonds.

I'm gonna use hot water, no boiling water, hot water.

Hot, like this. This kind of hot.

The reason why we use hot water

is because the water

is gonna make the almonds more creamier.

And I'm gonna add a little salt, and agave.

Agave's gonna give that sweetness that we're looking for.

[blender grinding] There we go.

That's the color that we're looking for.

[blending whirring]

So now we're gonna strain the almond milk.

It smells like almond heaven.

And there you have it, homemake almond milk.

- Let's start puttin' things together.

So, into the saucepan I'm going to add my spice mixture.

- [Saul] I'm makin' a traditional Mexican hot chocolate

and we're usin' a traditional pot, a traditional whisk,

and a traditional Mexican.

The molinillo, it's an Aztec whisk.

The reason why you have those little rings

is 'cause it's gonna help prevent

the chocolate to stick to the bottom.

So, basically I'm gonna put it right here

and kind of do this with the chocolate.

- My secret ingredient, arrowroot powder.

It thickens things up.

So, I wanna do this a little by little,

sort of scooping a bit of the hot chocolate into this first.

- This is when you add the corn flour to the liquid,

and the reason why I did it on the side,

because I wanted it to be nice and smooth.

- To start breaking up the chunks

and starting the thickening process

before re-adding this into the saucepan.

So, once I see that all the arrowroot powder's absorbed,

this goes back into the saucepan,

and that's just gonna help thicken it up a little bit more

without adding any extra crazy flavor.

- We're gonna add this to the pot.

And we're gonna add cinnamon.

- And then we grab the vanilla extract,

Sometime your kid be like

"Oh, I feel like this is missing something",

it's vanilla extract.

- [Saul] And of course, the chocolate.

- I'm literally just gonna add

the entirety of what I chopped up before

and start whisking away.

- And keep doing this

until the hot chocolate is kind of almost boiling.

- [Stephen] I don't know when my sister does this.

Yeah, I'm gettin' a muscle cramp.

- [Saul] Consistency is exactly what I'm looking for,

like a thick hot chocolate.

And it smells amazing. It smells like Mexican Christmas.

- [Stephen] I think this is looking pretty good.

- So, this looks great,

but you know what's gonna make it a little better?

Booze. So, first things first.

To the shaker, I'm gonna add some ice.

I've got vodka, got some Kahlua,

Bailey's Irish Cream in here.

I'm going to add my hot chocolate.

Okay, all that's left to do is shake it up

[shaker rattling]

and it is ready to be poured.

- And now it's churro time.

All right, so basically making churros,

it sounds complicated, but it's not.

- Let's talk toppings, baby.

- So, I got a lot of toppings.

All empty calories, by the way.

Well, we got the caramel, festive sprinkles.

We got some chocolate chips.

We got some Reddi Whip,

and then we got a chocolate wafer straw

that we're gonna sneak in.

- My hot chocolate is sort of s'mores inspired.

I'm opting for graham crackers and marshmallows

as my garnish, my embellishment,

on top of some homemade whipped cream.

So, I'm gonna make my whipped cream by hand.

- Daniel's always tryin' to show me up.

- So, let's make some churros.

Cold water. We have butter.

Gonna add a little bit of salt and sugar,

and we're just gonna stir it

until everything combines together.

We are going to dump the flour at once.

We don't want to boil the water.

If the water's boiling, gonna have big crumbles of flour.

So you wanna mix it until it is smooth.

- All right, let's make some whipped cream.

First thing, cold bowl.

You don't think it matters, but it really does.

It helps with keeping everything together.

And if you use a warm bowl,

I find that it's harder to get those stiff peaks.

To the cold bowl I'm going to add

some heavy cream and powdered sugar.

[whisk scraping]

I am already tired.

- I do not whip my own whipped cream.

It gives me muscle spasms.

- Now, the dough, it's very important

that we have to make sure we lower the temperature.

We don't wanna scramble eggs. This is no breakfast.

Just mix it.

Make sure it gets some air in there

so it cools a little bit.

- Is making your own whipped cream by hand necessary,

like without an electric mixer?

No, but the pride you feel when it's done,

you can't, you can't beat that, you know?

I'm gonna stop here.

I don't think it needs to be any thicker.

- And now I'm gonna add the eggs, one by one.

All right, let's add some vanilla.

Our dough looks good.

- I think this is perfect consistency.

It's holding onto the whisk.

The homemade whipped cream is done.

- All right, my churro dough is ready.

Now it's time to fry some churros.

To fry churros, I'm gonna use canola oil, to be at 375, 370,

to have a nice golden crispy churros.

We wanna make sure we keep our scissors on water

because that's how we're gonna cut our churros.

Otherwise they will stick. So let's make one.

Now, you stop. You cut it, okay.

See, and that's how you do an S.

Ha! Like Saul. Now I'm gonna do another one.

Oh! That looks delicious.

And I will say you cook it

for like maybe two to three minutes.

- You can't have a s'mores inspired cocktail

without toasted marshmallows.

- So, I'm a vegetarian, so no marshmallows for me.

Heh, it's a lifestyle, people.

- [Saul] I'm lookin' for nice gold consistency.

How do you know the churros are done?

When you don't see that many bubbles.

Okay, I don't see a lot of bubbles anymore.

We'll put it right here.

We're gonna mix some sugar and cinnamon for our churros.

As soon as they come out of the fryer

you wanna toss them in here

so the sugar will stick to the churro.

- [Daniel] For now, all I'm doing

is breaking up the graham crackers.