The staff here at Chocolate University Online have created a special 100th anniversary edition of this book and released it in a PDF download format.

In addition to the original text and 138 recipes, the book contains an all new introduction by CUO staff.  We also took each of the pictures and moved them to the same page as their corresponding recipes.  It’s much more convenient to see the picture right there rather than looking at various photo pages to get an idea of the finished product.

Furthermore, we added a great new alphabetical index.  Now if you know the name of the recipe you’ll be able to find it quickly.  That makes the book much friendlier than the original which, quite uselessly, listed all recipes in page number order.

The new version is for sale and immediate download at our Chocolate Store page.  Enjoy!

The molinillo (pronounced moh-lee-NEE-yoh) is the Mexican chocolate whisk.  It is a “stirrer,”  typically made of wood and used to froth warm drinks such as hot chocolate.

This tool was invented by the Spanish colonists in Mexico around the 1700′s.  The first molinillos were made to fit into a container with the handle sticking out of the top.  Then the user would rapidly rotate the molinillo between his/her palms.  The twisting motion frothed the chocolate.

Not only is this little cutie useful, but it loads of fun, too.  And it looks cool! It starts many conversations because my friends have to ask what it is and what I use it for.

I have a couple different molinillos but one in particular, the one pictured here, has an interesting story behind it.

When my son was born, a very good friend of the family who happened to be a local antique dealer, presented us with a baby gift.  She called it a Victorian era baby rattle.  The rattle is made of wood with circular discs surrounding the “neck” of the rattle and decorated with inlaid ivory.  It has a long handle with carved geometric designs, beautifully stained and varnished.  It looks attractive and interesting.  Kind of a funny looking rattle, though.

Years go by and one day I am looking online to find a Mexican Hot Chocolate recipe.  Embedded in the recipe is a link to view the recommended tool of choice, the molinillo, to froth up the chocolate drink.  When I clicked on the link, several photos of different styles of molinillos popped up and HOLY SMOKES! there is my Victorian era “baby rattle” working hard to put a creamy head of foam on a mug of hot chocolate!  I always thought it was a funny looking rattle!