Freezer Chocolate in the Heart of Central Mexico
Finished chocolate on display photo credit Ansley Braverman
Paco walks the streets of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico carrying a backpack full of homemade vanilla. You’ll see him in the public library, downtown restaurants, and wandering through the public garden referred to as “el jardín.” His mother, back in his hometown of Papantla, makes it by hand. Papantla, Veracruz is the birthplace of the voracious orchid Vanilla Planifolia and was first cultivated by the Totonacs before the Aztec conquest in 15th century.
Edwin Alexander making chocolate photo credit Ansley Braverman
Edwin Alexander knows the best time of day to find Paco. He waits at one of the breakfast spots downtown between 9am-12pm when Paco makes his rounds. “It’s the best vanilla in the world,” Alexander says. It’s the only vanilla he uses in his chocolate-making classes at the Miller House in the Mexiquito neighborhood of San Miguel de Allende. “I want to give it to all my friends,” he says with a characteristically generous disposition. If he's a fan of the local vanilla, he's an even bigger evangelist for his unique creation—freezer chocolate.
What is Freezer Chocolate?
Plate of freezer chocolate photo credit Ansley Braverman
Alexander first encountered his signature recipe while walking in his neighborhood. A friend saw him from across the street and waved him over. “Come meet my chocolate man,” she said. The man was pulling a small cooler behind him filled with freezer chocolate. “It was the best chocolate in town - no doubt about it,” Alexander remembers. The man was American and had learned to make chocolate from a group of Mexican women in town who were known for their exceptional mole. Though the details of the origin story are now lost, Alexander does remember how much he wanted the recipe.
When Alexander broached the topic of learning the man’s technique, he said he was leaving San Miguel and asked Edwin if he wanted to buy his chocolate business. He sold his freezer chocolate in 31 stores around town and had developed his own proprietary recipe. “I didn’t want to go around town delivering chocolate,” Alexander said. “I was retired. I just wanted the recipe.” Eventually, he borrowed $1,200 to buy the business and two weeks of private chocolate-making lessons.
Unsure how to proceed, Alexander made the chocolate for himself and for his friends, and even had a few chocolate parties. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 Pandemic when everything shut down that he realized his indecision was probably for the best.
Freezer Chocolate Finds a Home at Miller House
Art-filled Miller House in San Miguel de Allende photo credit Ansley Braverman
Originally from rural Georgia, Alexander first visited the Miller House in 2018 on one of his early trips to San Miguel de Allende. He was only going to stay for a month until he found a more permanent housing arrangement. “Well, I never left. I’m still there now.” He became good friends with Pat Miller, the property owner, and her 90-year-old artist husband who had recently had a stroke.
Joe Miller was a folk artist who came to live in San Miguel de Allende in the early 1990s and built his house from the ground up. Today, the house is a wonderfully funky complex of two guests rooms, two apartments, and two houses and serves as a living space for artists and a gallery for the work of Joe and his community.
Inside, you will find mythological creatures suspended from ceilings, brightly colored walls crowded with dioramas and metal work, and hand-painted stained glass. If you are lucky, you will hear one of the residents, José “Pepe” Ladra who describes living in the Miller House as “mágico,” playing songs on his guitar. Jenipher Young-Hall, an octogenarian artist living in the house, may be working in the studio on her custom-made chairs for the local library.
Throughout their lives, the Millers regularly opened up their studio spaces to local school children to learn various crafts like jewelry making. Edwin is now the property manager of the Miller House and runs it as an artist’s commune much like Pat did before her death in 2022. He continues to honor their dedication to the local community by hosting art workshops for children and donating space to local schools.
Edwin Alexander teaching guests how to make chocolate photo credit Ansley Braverman
Pat loved chocolate. “I could have paid her rent in chocolate,” Alexander says. So when a resident of the Miller House suggested he teach chocolate-making classes, Alexander felt it was the perfect way to combine his culinary background, his newly acquired business venture, and his love of the Miller House. Since 2022, Alexander has been teaching chocolate classes as a way of raising awareness of Joe’s art and attracting visitors to the property.
A Chocolate Making Experience
Mexican cacao paste photo credit Ansley Braverman
Each of Alexander's classes start with local ingredients. Paco’s vanilla, locally-sourced cacao from a small store in the Guadalupe neighborhood, and early season mesquite honey from a family farm with 100 hives. He buys bags of fermented cacao in gravelly chunks labeled pasta de cacao. The processed cacao is usually powdery but can also arrive in bricks the size of baseballs in need of pounding.
Classes can reach up to a dozen or more people and often include children over 4 years of age. A former kindergarten teacher, Alexander particularly loves helping kids prepare his chocolate recipe which he makes freely available to all of his students. “The instructions aren’t set in stone. I don’t do a lot of measuring,” he says in a recent class.
Coconut and cocoa nibs photo credit Ansley Braverman
His recipe is naturally vegan and gluten-free containing only four central ingredients. He makes three types: German Chocolate (with caramel, coconut, pecans), Bittersweet Chocolate (with cocoa nibs), and Peanut Butter Chocolate. “You expect chocolate to be tricky, but this is easy,” says Sue Sullivan, a guest visiting from the US. Guests make all three types of chocolates in his class and take a package of prepared chocolate home at the end of the day.
Chocolate in molds photo credit Ansley Braverman
“Chocolate is beautiful,” Alexander says. His chocolate is not waxy like other chocolatiers in town who decorate their candies with edible glitter and paint. His chocolates are simply prepared and deliciously earthy with notes of roasted coffee and a slight astringency. His recipe also makes a unique hot chocolate. Take one piece of German chocolate candy, heat it in 6 ounces of milk of your choice. “It is chunky chocolate milk,” he says, “and absolutely delicious.”
The Miller House is now owned by Pat’s daughter. The family says they do not plan on selling it but want to keep it as an homage to Pat and Joe. Indeed, it is hard to imagine the Miller House without Joe’s abstract nudes hanging on the wall or the smell of chocolate bubbling on the stove. “Ed is the heart of this house,” says Fernanda Mosqueda, a cinematographer and former resident of the Miller House. And, Ed’s chocolate is keeping the memory of the Millers alive.
How to Make Freezer Chocolate
Alexander says that this recipe is not precise nor is it a well-kept secret. It is meant to be shared with your friends and innovated upon. Go ahead, get creative with your flavors and fillings. Just be sure to give it away. The more chocolate you make, the more friends you will have.
Finished chocolate on display photo credit Ansley Braverman
Ingredients:
1 cup dry cocoa paste (see sources below)
1 cup coconut oil
¾ cups honey
1 tbsp vanilla
Equipment:
Double boiler
Candy thermometer
Silicone candy molds
Melting cacao paste photo credit Ansley Braverman
Pour coconut oil into double boiler and add chocolate. Mix gently until it looks like lumpy gravy. You are not trying to blend it together, only move it around.
Add the honey. Mix gently until the temperature rises to 120 degrees (measured with a candy thermometer). A few degrees higher or lower is okay, just don’t allow the mixture to get too hot. If it reaches 140 degrees, it will appear soupy and won’t set properly.
Add vanilla. Mix gently. After about ten minutes, the ingredients should be fully blended and appear smooth and slightly filmy on top.
Remove from heat and transfer to a room-temperature bowl.
Use a whisk to finish blending and set aside until the mixture cools to 100 degrees. Stir occasionally. Cooling will take about 1 hour if left in the fridge.
Layer desired ingredients into silicone molds:
German freezer chocolate
German Chocolate - Layer shredded coconut on bottom, then crushed pecans mixed with caramel on top, then fill it halfway up with chocolate (exact amounts are up to your personal preference). Stir with a toothpick until some chocolate sinks to the bottom.
“Bittersweet Chocolate” - Fill mold a little more than halfway with cocoa nibs. Add chocolate until filled to the rim. Stir with a toothpick until some chocolate sinks to the bottom.
Peanut Butter - Add a dollop of your choice of peanut butter into mold. Cover to the rim with chocolate.
Freeze for at least 20 minutes until you can pop candies out of the mold. Freeze for 45 minutes for fully hardened candies.
Eat. Enjoy. Share.
Note: Freezer chocolate will melt at room temperature so it must be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
Chocolate Conspiracy
Sources for cacao paste:
Cacao paste is available online from many different producers. Whichever brand you buy, be sure it contains only Theobroma cacao and not sugar or any other ingredients.