Chef Lupita
Alegrías de Amaranto de Tulyehualco
Ciudad de México's Tulyehualco alegría is popped huautli folded into piloncillo honey, pressed with peanuts, pepitas, and raisins, then cut into the rectangular bars that built a pueblo's identity.
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Tlatoquil Morelense de Plátano Manzano en Piloncillo
Created by
Morelos's rural sweet of whole plátano manzano baked under piloncillo and cinnamon syrup, touched with tequesquite, chilled until the syrup tightens, and served with crema.
Desserts
Mexican
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
40 min cook•5 hr 30 min total
Yield6 servings
Morelos, in the warm rural kitchens below the Chichinautzin and down through Cuautla, Yautepec, and Jojutla, is where tlatoquil belongs. It is a country sweet, not a restaurant trick: plátano manzano, piloncillo, canela, water, and the tiny disciplined pinch of tequesquite that women used before kitchen scales decided they were in charge.
Plátano manzano is not plátano macho and it is not the long Cavendish banana from the supermarket. It is small, firm, a little tart, with that apple perfume that gives the fruit its name. You use it verde-sazón, firm but not hard, because fully ripe bananas collapse into mush. No me vengas con atajos.
The syrup is Morelos on a spoon. Piloncillo comes from sugarcane country, and Morelos has lived with cane fields, mills, and household sweets for generations. The women who kept this dessert alive learned the syrup by sight: thin at first, glossy later, thick enough to cling but not so thick it turns to candy.
I was shown tlatoquil in a kitchen where the bananas cooled in a clay cazuela on the table, waiting for the afternoon heat to pass. They served it cold with crema mexicana, not dressed up, not stacked, not made into a performance. Cada estado, su propia cocina. Morelos keeps this one quiet, and that is exactly why it needs to be written down.
Tlatoquil is identified in Mexican gastronomic dictionaries as a rural Morelos sweet of plátano manzano cooked with water and piloncillo; state cultural records list tlatoquiles among the sweets that distinguish Morelos cooking. It is a mestizo dessert: banana and sugarcane entered Mexico after Spanish contact in the 16th century, while tequesquite belongs to older central Mexican Nahua cooking as an alkaline mineral seasoning. That meeting of introduced cane sweetness with indigenous technique is exactly how much of Morelos's kitchen was built.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plátano manzano verde-sazón
Quantity
12 small
firm and tart, peeled and left whole
piloncillo
Quantity
8 ounces
chopped
water
Quantity
2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons warm water
raja canela mexicana
Quantity
1 piece, about 3 inches
food-grade tequesquite
Quantity
1 tiny pinch, about 1/16 teaspoon
crushed
crema mexicana (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
chilled
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plátano manzano verde-sazónfirm and tart, peeled and left whole | 12 small |
| piloncillochopped | 8 ounces |
| water | 2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons warm water |
| raja canela mexicana | 1 piece, about 3 inches |
| food-grade tequesquitecrushed | 1 tiny pinch, about 1/16 teaspoon |
| crema mexicana (optional)chilled | 1/2 cup |
Equipment Needed
- •Small clay cazuela or heavy saucepan for the piloncillo syrup
- •Fine-mesh strainer or clean cloth for the tequesquite water
- •Shallow oven-safe clay cazuela or baking dish
- •Wooden spoon
- •Paring knife
Instructions
- 1
Choose the bananas
Use plátanos manzanos that are green-yellow and firm, not fully ripe. They should smell lightly of apple and resist your thumb. Score each peel lengthwise with a paring knife and peel carefully so the fruit stays whole. If the banana is already soft, save it for another dessert. Tlatoquil needs fruit that can hold its shape.
- 2
Prepare the tequesquite
Crush the tiny pinch of food-grade tequesquite and stir it into 2 tablespoons warm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then pour only the clear liquid through a fine strainer or clean cloth. Leave any grit behind. Tequesquite is powerful. More is not better.
Use only tequesquite sold for cooking. If you are not sure it is food-grade, do not use it. - 3
Make the syrup
Put the piloncillo, 2 cups water, and canela in a small clay cazuela or heavy saucepan. Simmer over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the piloncillo dissolves completely. Add the strained tequesquite water. The syrup should be dark amber and loose at this stage. It will thicken later in the oven and again in the refrigerator.
- 4
Poach the bananas
Lower the whole peeled plátanos manzanos into the syrup in one layer. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once with a spoon. Do not let the pot boil hard. A hard boil tears the fruit and makes the syrup muddy. You want the banana to drink in the piloncillo while staying intact.
- 5
Bake and glaze
Heat the oven to 350F. Transfer the bananas and syrup to a shallow clay baking dish if they are not already in an oven-safe cazuela. Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, spooning syrup over the fruit every 7 minutes. The bananas should turn golden amber and the syrup should drag slowly from the spoon. That is the point. Pull it before the fruit collapses.
- 6
Cool it properly
Let the tlatoquil cool in its syrup for 30 minutes at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. This dessert is served cold. The syrup tightens, the canela settles into the fruit, and the sweetness stops shouting.
- 7
Serve with crema
Set two cold bananas per plate or serve them family-style from the cazuela. Spoon the dark piloncillo syrup over the top and finish with a spoonful of cold crema mexicana. The crema should be pourable, lightly tangy, and white against the dark syrup. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Plátano manzano is the dish. If you use plátano macho, you have made another dessert. If you use long supermarket bananas, they may work in an emergency, but they collapse faster and lose the tart perfume. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •When older recipes say miel de piloncillo, they mean syrup made from piloncillo, not bee honey. Do not replace it with honey. The flavor turns floral and wrong for Morelos.
- •Buy piloncillo from a Mexican market if you can. It should smell like cane, caramel, and a little smoke. If it smells flat, the syrup will taste flat. Start at the market, not the stove.
- •Do not add chile, vanilla, or tequila because you saw another banana dessert do it. That is plátano flameado, a different plate. Tlatoquil is plátano manzano, piloncillo, canela, tequesquite, and cold crema. Así se hace y punto.
- •If you cannot find food-grade tequesquite, use the smallest pinch of baking soda dissolved in water or leave it out. The baking soda mimics the alkali, but it does not give the same mineral edge. Say the truth when you substitute.
Advance Preparation
- •Tlatoquil is better made one day ahead. Chill it in the syrup overnight and serve straight from the refrigerator.
- •Keep covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. The syrup will thicken as it sits.
- •Add the crema mexicana only at serving time. If it sits in the syrup, it loses the clean contrast that makes the dish work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
295 calories
Total Fat
4 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
13 mg
Sodium
45 mg
Total Carbohydrates
65 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
52 g
Protein
2 g
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