Sweet Corn Atole — Hot Sweet Corn and Milk Beberage

I remember those days of my childhood, in the sweet corn season , in which my grandmother spent hours cooking with elotes (sweet corn). I loved it a lot because my uncles, aunts and other family that lived in different parts of the country came to spend a happy day with us,  enjoying the delicious riguas, tamales, corn pancakes, boiled corn and of course a warm corn atole. I remember that sometimes she would take the young corn to the mill in the village but sometimes she would grind it on the grinding stone (and later on in an electric blender). Then she would strain it with a blanket and put it to cook in a very large clay pot, on a mud stove and the fire from wood brought from the mountain. On this page, I share with you the recipe that I have here in the United States and that by preparing it, surely, many of you, it will transport you to the past, as it does with me and my wife. Here, we cannot find the white corn found in El Salvador and other Central American countries. So we work with the yellow corn, which is sweeter and juicier and has less starch. For that reason, we also use a little powdered starch or cornstarch to thicken a little. This recipe, like all the recipes on cocinamerica.com, are very easy to follow. So we hope you make it and let us ...   Click aqui para Receta en Español (Recipe in Spanish)!
Servings: 1 yield(s)
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Ingredients
  • 5 sweet corns
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch (to thicken it as you like)
  • 2 cup water (for the blender)
  • 3.5 tbsp white cane sugar
  • cinnamon sticks
  • 1 pinch salt
Instructions
  1. Scrape the corn with a knife (start at the tip of the corn) to get the corn.
  2. Put the corn and the water in the blender.
  3. Liquify it in the blender.
  4. Pour the blended corn into a strainer blanket and squeeze out all the juice. If you don't have a strainer blanket, use a fine strainer.
  5. This is what remains when you squeeze out all the juice. If you are also going to make the tamales recipe, you can combine this pulp in the mixture.
  6. Heat a cup of milk in a separate pot.
  7. Pour the corn juice into a pot.
  8. Put the cinnamon in the corn juice. Here, I have put the cinnamon in a bag of herbs, but it is not necessary.
  9. Put cornstarch in a cup or container. Dissolve it with a little milk or water.
  10. Now add the liquid cornstarch (from the previous step) to the pot with the corn juice.
  11. Turn the burner on the stove to medium heat and begin to stir non-stop with a spoon or spatula. **Don't stop stirring until it boils for about a minute.
  12. Agregale una pizca de sal y sigue moviendo.
  13. When it's hot, add the hot milk (remember the one you started to heat up at the beginning?) and keep mixing.
  14. Add the sugar and continue mixing. Taste with a spoon (carefully) and add more sugar to your liking if necessary. Keep mixing until it bubbles for a minute.
  15. When it has boiled for 1 minute, it is Ready! The atole is bubbling. You can now remove it from the fire.
  16. Atole in a bowl or mug and...
  17. Enjoy this delicious hot sweet corn atolet with friends or family!!
Recipe Notes

It is very important that you keep stirring the atole with a wooden spoon without stopping while it cooks. If you don't, it sticks and burns on the bottom, which changes the flavor. We put the starch to thicken because the corn in the USA does not have enough starch to thicken the atole. If you see that the atole is thick enough, do not use the starch.