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Bolillos

A lean roll slashed deep down its length and baked with steam, which is what opens the slash into a ridge.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS SLASHED DEEP DOWN ITS LENGTH AND BAKED WITH STEAM, and those two together are what give a bolillo its ridge. A single cut, a good centimetre deep, runs almost the whole length of the shaped roll just before it goes in. Steam in the first ten minutes keeps the surface soft and elastic while the inside is still expanding hard, so the dough pushes up and out through the cut and sets as a raised lip along the top. Without steam the crust sets in the first two minutes, the slash cannot open, and what comes out is a smooth oval roll with a line drawn on it. Slashed shallow, the same thing happens.
  2. THE STEAM IS MADE WITH A TRAY OF BOILING WATER AND THE OVEN IS NOT OPENED. A metal tray on the oven floor, boiling water poured in as the rolls go on, and the door shut for the first ten minutes. Then the tray comes out and the last ten minutes are dry, which is what crisps the crust. Left in throughout, the crust stays pale and leathery.
  3. IT IS A LEAN DOUGH AND THAT IS THE POINT. Flour, water, salt, yeast and a spoonful of oil -- no egg, no milk, no butter. A bolillo is about crust and a slightly chewy open crumb, and enrichment softens both. The cemita on the next page is the enriched roll, and the two are not interchangeable in the dishes that use them.
  4. THEY ARE SHAPED WITH POINTED ENDS, WHICH IS NOT DECORATION. The dough is rolled into a short cylinder and then tapered by rolling the heels of the hands outward at each end. The thin ends bake harder and faster and give the crisp bite at the tips that a blunt roll does not have, and they are also what makes a torta easy to hold.
  5. THE TEST IS THE SOUND AND NOT THE COLOUR. Tapped underneath, a finished bolillo is hollow and sharp. Taken out on colour alone they are frequently underdone in the middle, and an underdone roll collapses the moment a filling goes in.
  6. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt stirred together, the salt kept away from the yeast until the water goes in.
  7. The lukewarm water and oil added and mixed to a shaggy dough.
  8. Kneaded 10 MINUTES to a smooth, elastic dough that springs back when pressed.
  9. Covered and left to rise 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, until roughly doubled.
  10. Knocked back and divided into 8 pieces.
  11. Each rolled into a short cylinder, then TAPERED by rolling the heels of the hands outward at each end to make POINTED ends.
  12. Set on a lined tray, well apart, covered, and proved 45 MINUTES until puffy.
  13. The oven heated to 220°C with an empty METAL TRAY on the floor. A kettle boiled.
  14. Each roll SLASHED once down its length, a good 1 cm DEEP, with a sharp blade.
  15. The rolls put in and the boiling water poured into the hot tray. The door SHUT at once.
  16. Baked 10 MINUTES with steam, then the water tray REMOVED and baked a further 10 to 12 MINUTES dry.
  17. TESTED by tapping the base: it must sound HOLLOW and sharp. Colour alone is not the test.
  18. Cooled on a rack. Best the same day and the right age for a torta.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes