Take Inspiration From Mexican Hot Chocolate To Transform Your Ice Cream

Perhaps the best thing about ice cream (apart from being so tasty), is what a customizable treat it is. Whether you're making your own ice cream or picking up a container at the store, it's easy to transform simple vanilla or chocolate with the addition of syrups, nuts, candy, spices, or salty treats. Blend ice cream for a milkshake, and you can even add booze.

For a super easy yet tantalizingly complex upgrade, look to Mexican hot chocolate for inspiration. What makes it different? It's the combination of sweet and spicy (or uhhh ... "swicy") that dark chocolate, cinnamon, and chili powder bring to the table. We've discussed how sweet-and-spicy works its magic when adding hot honey as an ice cream topping. This trick works the same way, though it's less sweet and arguably less messy. One bite of a high-quality chocolate ice cream topped with this Mexican chocolate-inspired seasoning, and you may want to mix up a batch and carry it with you at all times.

The combination of unsweetened chocolate and chili powder dates back millennia, to the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya. Spanish conquistadors and colonists observed indigenous peoples combining chocolate with chili as well as ingredients like maize, honey, or water, to create a thick, frothy drink. By the end of the 1700s, colonizing Europeans added sugar and milk, and today's version of Mexican hot chocolate was born. The flavor combination is hard to beat. You can even upgrade instant hot chocolate this way with the addition of cinnamon and cayenne.

The same idea works for ice cream, whether it's chocolate, vanilla, or praline. Combine a couple teaspoons each of dark cocoa powder (bittersweet works best), a mild chili powder, and cinnamon in a dish or sealable plastic bag. Mix well, and you'll have enough to sprinkle atop several scoops. Mix it in with chocolate sauce for a rich and spicy topping. Or if you make your own ice cream or like to fold ingredients in, you can incorporate the seasonings directly into the dessert itself. Really, there are no hard and fast rules here. Adjust the sweet and spicy ratios to taste, or make the flavoring even more complex by adding nutmeg, anise, or fine-ground coffee. Make sure to set aside enough seasoning for seconds.