For the dessert of our Mexican cooking class featuring a menu from Michoacán, we prepared wildberry atole ‘custard’ with home-made almond ice cream.

Atoles are usually hot drinks made of masa (corn flour), with the addition of unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon-infused water, as well as optional vanilla, chocolate or fruits. If the mixture is boiled for a long time with lots of sugar, it will set at room temperature to form a ‘custard’. The ‘custard’ we made in our class used frozen blackberries.

The state of Michoacán is very fond of exotic-flavoured ice creams and sorbets, and the Almond Ice Cream we made is a good example. In Spanish it is called : ‘pasta de nieve’ which translates as ‘almond paste of snow’.

Wildberry Atole with Almond Ice Cream

Home-made Almond Ice Cream – ‘Pasta de nieve’

• Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of honey and simmer for 5 more minutes
• Add 2 cups of ground almonds and continue to simmer until it is creamy

mixing the ingredients for the almond ice cream

• Remove from heat, pour into a cake pan and chill in an ice bath.

the Almond Ice Cream mix being poured in a pan in advance of freezing  it.

• At the one hour point whip up 4 cups of whipping cream to soft peaks
• Fold the whipped cream into frosty mixture, and put the pan back into the freezer.
• From this point on check every 15 minutes or so for crystals forming and break them up using a fork.
• Continue to do this until the ice cream is smooth and creamy.

The Wildberry Atole Custard

• 500 gr corn flour is mixed with water to form a dough; the masa dough is then mixed with more water until runny.

the masa dough is mixed with more water to form a runny mix

• Once the masa is dissolved strain into a pot and bring to a simmer stirring constantly.
• 750 gr of berries are mixed with a half litre of water; then strained into the simmering atole.

straining the berries into the simmering ‘atole‘ mixture of masa and water

• Whisk the two together, then add 750 gr of sugar and continue stirring until the bottom of the pot is visible.

• Pour the mixture into dessert cups and let set at room temperature.
• Garnish with whole berries and a sprinkle of icing sugar (or in this case an almond and Almond Ice Cream)

Wildberry Atole with Almond Ice Cream

Chef Rossana, the instructor of my Mexican cooking course, is on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MiMetate