Conchas: a Mexican Delight

It’s time for some Mexican sweet bread or better known as pan dulce. Ever walk into a Mexican bakery and just smell the amazing scents? Yeah, it is pretty satisfying. You can make your home smell like that too (sounds like an infomercial, but just wait it’ll be worth it). Today I am going to share a recipe for a type of pan dulce called conchas. I don’t know exactly why they are called conchas, but I think it has to do with the fact that they look similar to seashells.

Concha when translated from Spanish means, “shell”. They are a sweet bread with a sugar topping. There are variations to the type of sugar topping added. In this recipe I will be sharing the chocolate flavored sugar topping. If you prefer vanilla instead just use a couple teaspoons of vanilla in place of cocoa powder. There is also a pink topping which is generally just food colored, but I believe there are strawberry variations as well.

Conchas go perfect with some coffee or hot chocolate. I enjoy a fluffier concha and so I will be using all-purpose flour. If you prefer a thicker, dense concha simply switch out the all-purpose for bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content and will give you a nicer bread build. I want a spongier type concha and so I will be using all-purpose flour.

Let’s Start Making Conchas!

Now let’s get down to the recipe! To start, we need to mix the evaporated milk and melted butter. I just poured the milk with the butter and microwaved everything together. Of course, you can heat them up separately and combine afterwards as well. It was just a bit quicker for me to put everything together all at once.

After everything has been combined and warmed up, you are going to add in the sugar. Stir it around and once that has dissolved add in the yeast. Make sure that the yeast is covered by milk. You don’t want any dry yeast particles floating around.

I let it rest for about five minutes, until the yeast is activated and starts to come back up and bubble.

In a separate bowl combine the flour and salt. I used a stand mixer bowl, because I generally like to use my stand mixer to knead my dough. Yes, I can be a little lazy sometimes! Trust me after baking so much, shortcuts are appreciated.

Once the yeast is activated, you can put the egg in the dry ingredients then pour the yeast mixture in.

Time to Knead that Dough

We need to combine the ingredients and then we knead the dough for about 9 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. If you are kneading by hand, it takes double the amount of time so it will be about 18 minutes. You will know when the dough is ready by the windowpane test. Just grab a bit of dough and stretch it out, it should be able to stretch thin enough that you will see the light through it without breaking.

Now the dough is ready to be put in a greased bowl, covered, and left in a warm spot to double in size. If you have a lot of time on your hands or you can’t immediately work with the dough, you can let it rise in the fridge. It will take longer this way but if you need to it is fine.

Time to Start Working on the Sugar Topping

This usually takes about an hour or so, while the dough is rising you can start on the sugar topping or wait until later it’s up to you. I took a nap while the dough rose then started the topping, but if you want to be more efficient you should probably do it while the dough is rising. The sugar topping is pretty easy to make. All you need to do is add the shortening, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cocoa powder to the same bowl.

Now the topping is ready and after an hour your dough should have doubled in size. You will know the dough is ready when you press into it and it doesn’t bounce back up. Time to create the concha shapes.

We are going to pull off pieces of the dough and roll them into ball shapes. When I did this I ended up with about twelve decent sized dough balls. If you want to be extra precise then get your food scale and measure the weight of all the balls you create.

Grab a small ball of the sugar topping and flatten it in your hand. I have also used a tortilla press to make the conchas topping more uniform in shape. Once it has been flattened to about the size of the ball place it on top. After you have covered all the dough balls we are going to use a knife and make little cuts into the sugar topping. The cuts you make usually resemble a shell somehow, but to be honest you can cut it however you want.

Give the Conchas a Second Rise

Let them rise again for about 30 more minutes in a warm spot. Once they have risen for a second time bake them in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Take them off the trays, let them cool down and enjoy them with some coffee or maybe even hot chocolate!

Yeasted doughs take time to create, but they have such fluffy textures that it is a reward in itself. Conchas are the most popular Mexican sweet bread and after you taste theses you will see why. I have seen theme parks make a concha ice cream sandwich too. If you are into that, all you have to do is cut the concha like sandwich bread and put some ice cream in the middle. You can do so much with a concha.

There are More Recipes to Come!

In the past, my most popular post has been my flan recipe. I will be sharing that one soon, I think I need to make sure I have enough posts in every one of my categories. If you have any suggestions let me know! I’ll be showing you how to make a multitude of desserts. Just keep an eye out! Some of these are recipes that I have revamped as well.