Cochinitos de Piloncillo

The piloncillo dissolved into a syrup and cooled before it meets the flour, because grated it never fully melts in the dough.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

• 300 g piloncillo, chopped
• 200 ml water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 550 g plain flour
• 120 g lard, softened
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, plus 1 beaten for glazing

Method

1. THE PILONCILLO IS DISSOLVED INTO A SYRUP AND COOLED BEFORE IT MEETS THE FLOUR, because grated into the dough it never fully melts. Piloncillo is a hard cone of unrefined cane sugar, and even grated finely the pieces do not dissolve in a stiff dough -- they survive the oven as hard gritty specks and, worse, the ones at the surface melt and burn while the dough around them is still pale. Simmered with water and a cinnamon stick into a syrup, strained and cooled to lukewarm, it goes into the dough as a liquid and the sweetness and colour are completely even. The syrup is also what makes them brown properly: it is the only sugar in the recipe and it caramelises across the whole surface.
2. THE SYRUP MUST BE COOLED TO LUKEWARM OR THE LARD MELTS. Hot syrup poured onto softened lard turns it to oil, and an oiled dough is greasy and will not hold a cut shape -- the pigs spread into blobs. Blood heat at most.
3. IT IS A SOFT DOUGH AND IT IS CHILLED BEFORE CUTTING. Half an hour in the fridge after mixing. Cut and baked straight away, the shapes lose their legs and snouts in the oven; chilled, the lard is firm and they hold their outline.
4. THEY ARE ROLLED THICK, WHICH IS NOT HOW A BISCUIT IS USUALLY ROLLED. A full centimetre. These are meant to be soft and cakey in the middle rather than crisp, and at biscuit thickness they bake hard right through and lose the texture that makes them what they are.
5. THE EGG GLAZE IS WHAT GIVES THE SHINE AND IT GOES ON BEFORE BAKING. Brushed over each one. Without it they bake matt and look like plain brown biscuits; with it they come out glossy and deep mahogany, which is most of how they are recognised.
6. The piloncillo, water and cinnamon stick simmered 10 MINUTES until completely dissolved into a syrup.
7. STRAINED and COOLED to lukewarm -- blood heat at most. The cinnamon discarded.
8. The flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, ground cinnamon, cloves and salt mixed in a large bowl.
9. The softened lard rubbed in with the fingertips until it disappears.
10. The cooled syrup and the egg added and worked to a soft dough. Kneaded briefly, just until smooth.
11. Covered and CHILLED 30 MINUTES.
12. Rolled out on a floured board to a FULL 1 cm thick -- thicker than a biscuit.
13. Cut with a pig-shaped cutter and laid on lined trays, well apart.
14. The offcuts gathered, re-chilled briefly and rolled again.
15. Each brushed with the beaten egg.
16. Baked at 180°C for 12 to 14 MINUTES, until risen, glossy and deep mahogany.
17. TESTED: they should still give slightly in the middle. Cooled on the tray 5 minutes, then on a rack. They keep 5 days.

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