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This easy Mexican Chocolate Spice Mix will add a little something extra to your favorite chocolaty treats. Serious chocolate lovers will go crazy for the combo when you add the warmth of cinnamon and ginger and the kick of cayenne pepper in this spice blend to any chocolate recipe. Spice up your cookies, cakes, brownies, and more!
I’m insane. Really, I am. I almost want to say that I am too smart for my own good, but I’m not gonna give myself that much credit. I’m just an engineer.
And a perfectionist.
And I know too much about random things that inhibit me from functioning like a normal human being. I might also be totally routine driven to the point of eating the same things over and over and over, prepared the same way over and over and over. Same steps, same order, same time of day, you get the idea.
Almost a year ago I shared my recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Oatmeal. Love this stuff.
So everyday for almost a year I would measure out the oatmeal, sugar or honey or whatever sweetener I was using, the cocoa powder, and all the spices. Individually. The thought crossed my mind to make up a spice mixture so I’d only have to measure out one thing instead of three. But I was concerned about particle size.
Particle size? Yes, particle size. And mixing phenomena. And homogeneity.
I was concerned that the cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne were each ground to different particle sizes, and so when I combined them, they would not be perfectly mixed because the different particle sizes would lead to segregation of the spices.
And then when I took a teaspoonful to put in my oatmeal, some days I would get too much cinnamon and not enough cayenne kick, another day it would be too gingery (and I am not a huge ginger person – I like just a bit), and other days I would hit a hot spot and burn my mouth out.
These are the kinds of things you worry about when you work for a pharmaceutical company as a chemical engineer for ten years and have to think about things like particle size and mixing phenomena and homogeneity.
You can take the girl out of engineering, but you can’t take the engineer out of the girl.
Finally, I got annoyed and made the spice mixture. And you know what? No detectable flavor variations!
I can now just keep a jar in my pantry and so can you!
Mexican Chocolate Spices
No, there is no chocolate in this spice mixture. You add it to other chocolaty foods and recipes.
All you need is:
- Cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Cayenne pepper
The warmth of the cinnamon and ginger just play up and enhance the chocolatiness, and make it so rich and comforting. Then the cayenne starts to hit you with its bit of heat. Just enough to make you sniffle a bit and rev up your metabolism.
Helps cancel out the calories in the chocolate, right? 😉
Besides the oatmeal I mentioned earlier, I also love to add it to:
- Flourless Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Mexican Chocolate Glazed Popcorn
- Mexican Mocha Hot Chocolate
- And I’ll even blend it into my Chocolate Banana Smoothie (leaving out the peanut butter) or a Mocha Almond Protein Blended Cold Brew.
And some recipes from my friends that you may be able to substitute this spice mixture:
- Skinny Mexican Frozen Hot Chocolate from Wine & Glue
- Mexican Chocolate Truffles from Crazy for Crust
- Mexican Chocolate Chia Pudding from Oh My Veggies
Mexican Chocolate Spice Blend
This simple combination of cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne pepper will add warmth and a little spicy kick to your favorite chocolate recipes. Enjoy the sweet heat of Mexican hot chocolate by adding it to cookies, brownies, oatmeal, cakes, and more!
Mexican Chocolate Spice Mix
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Combine all of the spices in a bottle or jar or covered container and shake to thoroughly combine and mix evenly.
Notes
Enjoy!
Yummy! Pining it.
Thanks!!
It’s not just you! As a Bio/Chem person (bio degree, but always liked chem more), I worry about these things all the time. Sometimes, I find it helps to run the whole mixture through my spice grinder. While the same issue may still exist, at least they’re all smaller… at least, that’s what I force myself to believe :p
LOL, I am so glad I am not alone!
Ha! I knew where you were going with this as soon as I read ‘particle size’. I don’t have a background in chemistry…. I credit my similar thinking to a touch of OCD 🙂
Sounds like a lovely combo, will try it out in my next batch of hot cocoa!
Hmm, my issue may be OCD, too, but I;d like to blame it on my career background 🙂
This sounds so good! I was a chemistry major – and worked as a lab tech for a major grain processing company – I totally get the method to the madness 🙂 I am the same way!
Haha, so gald I am not alone!
Ok..you crack me up! 😉 So nice to have it readily available rather than mixing each time!! 😉 Looks like a fabulous combination!
Yes, I have learned my lesson 🙂