Borrachitos Oaxaqueños con Mezcal

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 2-quart saucepan
• •Square 8-inch baking pan, or three small rectangular pans for the three colors
• •Fine microplane for citrus zest
• •Sharp chef's knife and a bowl of hot water for cutting the cubes
• •Shallow dish for the sugar-cornstarch dusting
• •Wire rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the pan

   Lightly oil a square 8-inch baking pan or three small rectangular pans if you plan to make three colors. Line with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides for lifting. Oil the parchment too. The borrachito will not release from a dry pan and a stuck candy is a wasted candy. No me vengas con atajos. The pan goes first, before you touch the stove.

2. 2

   Bloom the gelatin

   Pour the 1/4 cup cold water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin evenly across the surface. Do not stir. Let it sit for 10 minutes. The granules drink the water and swell into a dense, translucent sponge. This is what gives the borrachito its clean cube and its slight resistance under the tooth. Skip the bloom and the gelatin clumps in the syrup. Asi se hace y punto.

3. 3

   Build the citrus syrup

   Combine the lime juice, orange juice, water, granulated sugar, and pinch of salt in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Set over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Once the syrup is clear, stop stirring. Bring to a low simmer, not a hard boil. Cook for about 8 minutes, until the syrup has reduced slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon. The fruit and the sugar need to marry. A hard boil drives off the citrus aromatics and leaves you with sweet without depth.

   Use limones criollos if you can find them, the small Mexican limes with thin skin and an aromatic oil that no Persian lime carries. The dish is from Oaxaca. The lime should be too.
4. 4

   Melt the gelatin into the syrup

   Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the bloomed gelatin to the hot syrup and whisk constantly until completely dissolved. Hold the pan up to the light and look. There should be no streaks, no flecks, no clumps. If you see any, set the pan back over the lowest heat and whisk for another minute. Gelatin that is not fully melted will leave a chewy band at the bottom of your finished borrachito.

5. 5

   Spike with mezcal

   Let the syrup cool for about 5 minutes, until it is warm but no longer steaming-hot. Whisk in the mezcal, tequila, and rum. Add the lime zest, orange zest, and the 1/4 cup powdered sugar. The alcohol must go in off the heat. If you pour mezcal into a hot pan, you boil off the very thing that makes a borrachito borracho. The point is the drunken character. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. Taste the syrup. It should be bright, slightly bitter from the zest, and unmistakably alcoholic.

6. 6

   Color and pour

   If you are making the traditional trio of pastel colors, divide the syrup evenly into three bowls. Add cochineal tincture to one for pink, achiote water to the second for orange, and hoja santa or spinach water to the third for green. Stir each gently. Use cochineal if you want the real Oaxacan pink. The dyers and confectioners around Tlacolula have used it for centuries. Pour each color into a small oiled pan, or pour them in stripes into the single 8-inch pan, letting each color set for 15 minutes in the refrigerator before adding the next so the layers stay distinct.

7. 7

   Set overnight

   Cover the pan loosely with a clean cloth and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight. The borrachito needs the full set. A four-hour set will give you a soft, sticky candy that tears when you cut it. Eight hours gives you the clean cube with the slight bite that holds powdered sugar without weeping.

8. 8

   Cut and dust

   Lift the set candy out of the pan using the parchment overhang. Place on a cutting board. Whisk together about 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the cornstarch in a shallow dish. Cut the slab into 1-inch cubes with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry between cuts. Toss each cube in the sugar-cornstarch mix until every face is coated. The cornstarch keeps them from weeping in the dish. Powdered sugar alone will dissolve into the candy within an hour. This is the dulceria trick.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Let the dusted borrachitos sit at room temperature on a wire rack for 30 minutes before serving. The exterior firms up slightly and the dusting sets. Serve on a small wooden tray lined with parchment, the way they sell them at the dulceria stalls around Jardin Sócrates in the Centro Historico of Oaxaca. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Mezcal joven from Oaxaca is the spirit this candy was built around. Espadin is the everyday workhorse and the right choice here. Save your tobala or tepeztate for the glass. A reposado or anejo carries oak that fights the citrus.
• •If you cannot find cochineal tincture, leave the pink uncolored before you reach for red dye number 40. A pale ivory borrachito is honest. A neon pink one is a costume. The convent dulcerias used what the cactus gave them and so should you.
• •The dusting mix is half powdered sugar and half cornstarch. This is not optional. Pure powdered sugar dissolves into the candy within an hour and you end up with sticky cubes weeping syrup onto the tray. The cornstarch is what makes them hold up at a dinner party.
• •Borrachitos are not for children, despite the pastel colors. The alcohol does not cook off because it is added off the heat. Half a cup of mezcal across 64 cubes is not nothing. Tell your guests.

Advance Preparation

• •Borrachitos must set for at least 8 hours, so plan to make them the day before you serve them. The cubes can be cut and dusted up to 3 days ahead and stored in a single layer in an airtight tin lined with parchment.
• •Keep them at cool room temperature, not refrigerated. The fridge sweats the sugar dust off the surface within hours. A cool pantry shelf is the dulceria's storage and it should be yours.
• •The citrus syrup base, before the gelatin and alcohol go in, can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Warm it gently before adding the bloomed gelatin and proceeding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 22g)