Capirotada

The bread dried hard and fried before any syrup touches it, which is why it holds its shape instead of dissolving.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

the syrup

• 250 g piloncillo, or dark muscovado sugar
• 600 ml water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cloves
• zest of 1 orange

the layers

• 4 bolillos, as on their own page, a day or two old
• 4 tablespoons butter, for frying
• 100 g raisins
• 80 g peanuts
• 80 g blanched almonds
• 200 g cheese that melts — Chihuahua or mild Cheddar — grated
• 50 g desiccated coconut

Method

1. THE BREAD IS DRIED HARD AND FRIED BEFORE ANY SYRUP TOUCHES IT, which is why it holds its shape instead of dissolving. The syrup would destroy the roll, and this only works because the roll is armoured first. Day-old bolillos are sliced, left out until they are genuinely hard, and then fried in butter until golden on both faces. The frying seals each slice with a layer of fat, and a sealed slice can absorb a good deal of hot syrup and still be a slice when it is served. Fresh bread, or dried bread that has not been fried, turns to paste within minutes of the syrup going on and what arrives is a sweet brown mush.
2. THE SYRUP IS POURED ON HOT AND IS NOT COOKED WITH THE BREAD IN IT. Built separately, simmered twenty minutes with the spices, strained, and ladled over the assembled layers. Simmering the bread in syrup is exactly the thing the frying was meant to prevent.
3. LESS SYRUP THAN LOOKS RIGHT, AND IT IS ADDED IN TWO GOES. Enough to wet the layers through, not enough to stand in the dish. Half poured over, left five minutes to be taken up, then the rest only if it is needed. A dish with syrup pooled in the bottom gives sodden slices at the base and dry ones on top.
4. THE CHEESE IS GRATED BETWEEN THE LAYERS AND IT IS MEANT TO BE THERE. A melting cheese in a sweet bread pudding with sugar syrup and raisins sounds wrong and is the characteristic thing about this dish. It goes between every layer, melts into the syrup, and makes the whole thing savoury-edged and slightly salty rather than simply sweet.
5. IT IS BAKED COVERED AND THEN UNCOVERED. Twenty-five minutes under foil so the inside heats and the syrup moves through, then ten minutes open so the top layer of cheese and nuts browns and crisps. Uncovered throughout, the top burns while the middle is still cool.
6. The bolillos sliced about 1.5 cm thick and left out uncovered until genuinely HARD -- overnight, or 15 minutes in a 150°C oven.
7. The butter melted in a frying pan and the slices fried in batches until GOLDEN on both faces. Drained on a rack.
8. The piloncillo, water, cinnamon, cloves and orange zest simmered 20 MINUTES to a thin syrup. STRAINED and kept HOT.
9. An ovenproof dish buttered. A layer of fried slices laid in, fitted close.
10. Scattered with raisins, peanuts, almonds and a third of the cheese.
11. Repeated -- bread, fruit and nuts, cheese -- three layers in all, finishing with cheese and the coconut.
12. HALF the hot syrup ladled evenly over, and left 5 MINUTES to be taken up.
13. TESTED by pressing a corner: if the lower layers are still dry, the rest of the syrup added. If not, it is left.
14. Covered with foil and baked at 180°C for 25 MINUTES.
15. The foil REMOVED and baked a further 10 MINUTES, until the top is browned and crisp at the edges.
16. Left to stand 15 minutes before serving -- warm, not hot. The slices should still be slices.

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