Heat a dry skillet or comal over medium-low heat. Toast the guajillo, ancho, pasilla, and mulato chiles in batches for a few seconds per side, pressing them flat with a spatula until aromatic and slightly pliable. Do not let them blacken or scorch. Mole coloradito should stay brick-red and bright, so the chiles need deep toasting but not a burnt flavor. Transfer the toasted chiles to a bowl and cover with hot water. Weigh them down if needed and soak for 20 minutes until fully softened. The chiles should smell fruity, sweet, and lightly smoky. After soaking, they should be fully flexible with no leathery centers. This distinction matters more for mole coloradito specifically than for a darker mole style — any scorching here doesn't just risk bitterness, it also directly dulls and darkens the vivid red colour this particular sauce depends on for its whole identity.

While the chiles soak, roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and unpeeled garlic on a dry skillet, comal, or under a broiler at 220°C until blistered and charred in spots, about 12–18 minutes depending on method. Turn as needed so the onion edges darken, the tomatoes collapse slightly, and the tomatillos lose their raw sharpness. Peel the garlic once cool enough to handle. The vegetables should have good roasted color and softened flesh, but still retain a bright red-orange character rather than going fully black. Stopping the roast at charred-but-still-vivid, rather than pushing toward the deeper blackening a mole negro would call for, is a deliberate calibration specific to this recipe — the goal here is real roasted depth without sacrificing the brightness that separates coloradito from the darker mole styles.

Heat about 60ml of the lard or oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Fry the plantain slices until well caramelized and golden brown on both sides, about 2–3 minutes per side. Remove. Fry the raisins for 20–30 seconds until puffed. Remove. Fry the almonds, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds separately or in careful sequence until fragrant and lightly golden. Remove each promptly so they do not over-brown. Fry the sesame seeds briefly until golden and nutty, 30–45 seconds. Remove immediately. Fry the torn bread until golden brown and crisp. Fry the tortillas until deep golden and crisp with a few darker spots but not burnt. If using the avocado leaf, toast it briefly in the dry pan for a few seconds until fragrant. Everything should smell richer and more developed, with no raw floury or seedlike aroma left. The bread and tortilla should be crisp enough to break cleanly. Frying each component individually and pulling it the moment it's ready, rather than combining everything in one pass, is what lets ingredients as different as delicate sesame seeds and dense plantain slices each reach their own specific point of doneness without one overcooking while another still needs time.

In a mostly dry pan over low heat, toast the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, cumin, coriander, oregano, and thyme for 30–60 seconds until fragrant. Remove immediately so the smaller spices do not burn. The spice aroma should bloom quickly and smell warm and sweet. If it smells harsh or smoky, it has gone too far. Transferring the spices out of the hot pan the moment they're toasted, rather than leaving them where they are, protects them from the pan's own retained heat continuing to cook them even after the burner is turned off.

Drain the soaked chiles. In a blender, combine the soaked chiles, roasted tomatoes, roasted tomatillos, onion, peeled roasted garlic, fried plantain, raisins, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, fried bread, fried tortillas, toasted spices, and avocado leaf if using. Add 500–700ml warm stock and blend until as smooth as possible. Work in batches if needed. The mixture should move in the blender but remain thick. Pass the puree through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing firmly with a ladle or spatula. This step gives the finished mole its smoother, more classical texture. The strained paste should be thick, velvety, and strongly red-brown, with no obvious seed grit or large chile skin fragments. Straining after blending catches whatever fibrous material — chile skins, seed hulls, sesame husks — the blender's blades alone couldn't fully break down, which is what produces the genuinely velvety texture this classical mole style is known for.

Heat the remaining 30ml lard or oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Carefully add the strained mole paste. Stir immediately because it may sputter. Fry the paste for 10–15 minutes, stirring often and scraping the bottom and corners so it does not catch. This step develops color, sweetness, and depth, and cooks out any rawness from the blended ingredients. The paste should darken slightly into a deeper brick-red, look glossy, and leave slow thick tracks when stirred. The aroma should become rounder and more integrated. This is the stage where every individually toasted, roasted, and fried component genuinely becomes one unified sauce — without this active frying, the blended paste, however carefully prepared, would still taste distinctly raw and disconnected.

Start whisking in warm stock a little at a time until the mole loosens into a thick sauce. Add about 600–800ml at first, then add more only as needed during simmering. Add 12g salt and 20g piloncillo or dark brown sugar to start. If using Mexican chocolate, add only 15–20g here. Mole coloradito should not read as chocolate-forward. Lower the heat and simmer very gently for 25–30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more stock as needed to reach a thick but spoonable consistency. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon heavily and settle into smooth swirls, not sit as a stiff paste. Taste and adjust with more salt or a little more piloncillo if needed. If the sauce feels too thick or dense, loosen with additional warm stock 50–100ml at a time. The finished sauce should be glossy, smooth, and a vivid red-brick color. The flavor should be savory, chile-rich, lightly sweet, warm-spiced, and balanced, with brightness from the tomatoes and tomatillos still present underneath the deeper mole notes. Keeping the optional chocolate to this smaller, restrained amount, rather than the larger quantity a darker mole style calls for, is specifically what protects this sauce's identity — chocolate used more generously would pull the flavour and colour toward something closer to mole negro or poblano rather than coloradito's own distinct, brighter character.

If the mole is going to be used over chicken, pork, enchiladas, or roasted vegetables, keep it slightly looser than you think, because it thickens as it sits. If it is for spooning as a plating sauce, keep it a little thicker. Simmer for a final 3–5 minutes after the last stock adjustment so the texture resets and the surface regains its sheen. Serve hot, finished with a light scatter of toasted sesame seeds. When spooned onto a plate, the mole should hold its shape softly, spread with a gentle nudge, and look glossy rather than broken or oily. That brief final simmer after any last adjustment allows the sauce's texture and surface sheen to properly settle back into place, rather than serving it immediately after a stock addition while it's still actively integrating.