Leave in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. →Cover the bowl with plastic wrap in place in the refrigerator to rise. This will prevent the dough from drying out.

The entire ball of dough should be covered with a thin layer of oil. Flip the dough over so that the oiled side is facing up. Carefully gather the concha dough and place it in the oiled bowl. Rub the oil around the bottom and sides of the bowl. →Pour about 2 tsp of vegetable oil (I used avocado oil.) in a clean, large bowl. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and gather the dough to the center to form a ball. Refrain from adding any flour as it will dry out the dough. →The dough will be rather sticky and difficult to work with. Finally, add the softened butter and lard/shortening and mix on medium-high speed for 5-7 minutes. →Add the sugar and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the remaining egg and milk/vanilla and mix on medium speed for an additional minute. →Add 1 egg and half of the milk/vanilla and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. →In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together flour, salt, and yeast for 1 minute on medium speed. Plus, the cutter is on sale for $12.49 right now! PAN DULCE MEXICANO: ConchasĢ ¾ tsp (12 g) bread machine (not active dry) yeastġ ½ tsp vanilla extract (add to the milk)Ģ TBSP (30 g) pork lard or vegetable shortening PS…if you are looking for a concha cutter, I highly recommend this company! They were efficient and quick, and they offer a great product. Happy concha making! Please let me know if you decide to make these. There’s that Sugar Plum fairy working her magic again!

While this recipe does take some time, the results are celebratory, and there is nothing like enjoying a sweet concha with a cup of Mexican hot chocolate. I have searched high and low for a concha recipe that captures everything I know and imagine a good concha to be–fluffy, yet moist, and slightly sweet with a sufficient amount of crunchy topping. After years of searching and testing, I am happy to offer this recipe as a faithful representation of everything I feel a concha should be. For 5 pesos or so, I feel like I can judge the quality of the panadería’s product simply by taking a bite out of one of their conchas. To this day, I have a hard time passing up a Mexican panadería without going in and buying a concha.

Somehow the cloud-like concha made its way into my selection, and I must say it was love at first bite. The man paid and was on his way.īeing that I have a sweet tooth, I felt as if I had struck gold, so I too picked up a tray and meticulously selected the most tantalizing pieces of pan dulce.

He went to the front of the store, and the girl at the countertop carefully wrapped each pastry in a piece of parchment paper and placed them all in a brown paper bag. He went around the store swiftly snatching various pastries with the tongs and placing them on his tray. I carefully watched as a customer entered the store and grabbed a large metal tray and a pair of tongs. It seemed as if the Sugar Plum fairy had waved her magical wand over the entire shop giving a fanciful signature to each creation. Each pastry had its own whimsical name–brides, bows, pillows, doves, kisses, etc. Simple, open-air shelves lined the walls of the entire bakery, and they were stacked high with an extraordinary assortment of pastries. It was a small, family-run business, as most of them are, and the enticing smell of freshly baked bread floated out onto the street luring me in. I am a baker at heart so it is no surprise that I stumbled across and walked into a little bakery in downtown Puebla one day as I meandered around town. I can still see my young college self explaining my pan dulce addiction to the Mexican security guard while he raised an inquisitive eyebrow.īut, what can I say?! Up until that point, I had no idea that there was this amazing world of Mexican pastries just waiting to be discovered, sampled, and savored. Yes, I will confess. I am 100% guilty of bringing back pan dulce and other sweets from Puebla in my carry-on. While I did fill my suitcase with many of these items, some other unexpected things found their way into my luggage. I planned to stuff the suitcase with Spanish packaging, maps of different cities, posters, magazines, stamps, books, and just about anything I might be able to use someday for one of my lessons. When I traveled to Mexico for the first time in 2007, I took an extra suitcase with me just to fill with treasures that I would hopefully use in my Spanish classroom one day.

Mexican vanilla cake