Conchas

A separate paste of sugar, flour and fat pressed on and scored, which cracks into a shell as the bun rises beneath it.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g strong white flour
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 150 ml milk, lukewarm
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 8 g salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

the shell paste

• 120 g icing sugar
• 120 g plain flour
• 100 g vegetable shortening or softened butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, for half the batch

Method

1. A SEPARATE PASTE IS PRESSED ON AND SCORED, AND IT CRACKS INTO A SHELL AS THE BUN RISES BENEATH IT. That paste is the entire dish. Equal weights of icing sugar, plain flour and fat, worked to something like a stiff biscuit dough, rolled thin, laid over each proved bun and scored in a shell pattern with a knife. The paste does not rise and the dough underneath expands a great deal, so during the bake the paste is forced apart along every score and opens into clean raised ridges with bun showing between them. Unscored, it stretches and splits randomly or slides off in one piece; scored shallowly, the cracks never open.
2. THE SCORES ARE CUT RIGHT THROUGH THE PASTE TO THE DOUGH. A small sharp knife, firm pressure, all the way down. That is what decides whether the shell opens, and it is the single most common failure -- a timid score gives a bun with faint lines drawn on it.
3. THE PASTE IS PRESSED ON BEFORE THE SECOND PROVE FINISHES, NOT AFTER. It goes on when the buns are about three-quarters proved, so there is still real expansion to come. Laid on a fully proved bun there is nothing left to push the cracks open.
4. IT IS A HEAVILY ENRICHED DOUGH AND IT TAKES A LONG KNEAD. Three eggs and a hundred grams of butter slow gluten development considerably. Twelve to fifteen minutes, and the butter goes in in pieces AFTER the dough has already come together -- added at the start it coats the flour and the dough never develops strength.
5. THEY ARE BAKED MODERATELY AND NOT HOT. 180°C, eighteen to twenty minutes. The paste is mostly sugar and will scorch at a bread temperature while the enriched crumb is still raw; the finished shell should be pale, matt and dry, not golden.
6. The flour, sugar, yeast, salt, eggs, milk and vanilla mixed and kneaded 6 MINUTES until it comes together.
7. The softened butter added in pieces and kneaded a further 8 to 10 MINUTES until smooth and elastic. Not at the start.
8. Covered and risen 2 HOURS until doubled -- an enriched dough is slow.
9. Knocked back and divided into 10 balls. Set well apart on lined trays, covered, and proved 1 HOUR.
10. For the paste: the icing sugar, flour, shortening and vanilla worked together to a stiff, smooth, play-dough consistency. Half kept plain, half worked with the cocoa.
11. Divided into 10, each rolled between two sheets of plastic into a thin disc slightly wider than a bun.
12. At about THREE-QUARTERS proved -- puffy but with expansion left -- a disc laid over each bun and pressed gently onto the dome.
13. Each disc SCORED in a shell pattern, the knife cutting RIGHT THROUGH the paste to the dough. Firmly.
14. Proved a further 20 MINUTES.
15. Baked at 180°C for 18 to 20 MINUTES. The shell should stay PALE and matt, not golden.
16. TESTED: the cracks should have opened into raised ridges with bun visible between them. Cooled on a rack.

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