Baking

The last days of October are filled with the aromas of marigolds, copal (incense), toasted canela, orange blossoms, aniseed, mole, tortillas, and wood. Many people are busy preparing for the Día de los Muertos celebrations that take place during the first days of November (the main festivity is on the 2nd). The celebration dates back to the Aztec times, when it was believed that the deceased embark on a journey, eventually leading them to the Mictlan, the highest level of the underworld, where they would finally rest in peace. People gather in cemeteries and bring the deceased’s favorite foods and music. It is a way to celebrate the time we had with our loved ones and keep their memory alive. The cemeteries are filled with laughter, mariachis, food, lights, and flowers, and it is a celebration of life. There are many different breads made for this celebration. In Michoacán, they are sculpted into shapes of flowers, the Virgin Mary, skulls, and animals. In Oaxaca, you will find round breads topped with sesame seeds and colorful heads coming out of them. In the center of Mexico, the dough is made with pulque (a fermented beverage made from the maguey plant) instead of yeast, giving it a very distinctive, somewhat herbal, acidic flavor. Many places dust the tops with pink sugar to remind us of the ceremonial use of bread. The varieties are too many to count, but this one is perhaps the most well known. This recipe is adapted from Maricu, a chef from Mexico City who owns a cooking school of the same name. Even though you may not celebrate Día de los Muertos, I encourage you to make this delicious bread decorated with “bones” and take a moment to remember those who are no longer with you in this life.

The small bicycle town of Pomuch in Campeche has some of the best bakeries in Mexico. One of the oldest, La Huachita, still uses a brick oven and has been around for 120 years. They were kind enough to let me spend hours as a spectator, and this is a recipe I adapted from one of their creations. These small sugary breads are slightly flaky, buttery, and filled with a rich cream cheese mixture.

Three kings bread is a colorfully decorated bread adorned with candied fruit and a sugary topping and with a tiny plastic figurine baked into it. In Mexico, this bread brings friends and families together for the annual Three Kings celebration on the January 6.

Campechanas are fragile, crunchy, glasslike sweet treats that crumble as you take a bite. Valle de Bravo, a town a few hours from Mexico City, has some of the best ones, but you can find them everywhere. Funnily enough, though, they are hard to find in Campeche, where their name comes from. They are a bit tricky to make, but once you start, you’ll quickly get the hang of it. You may be surprised by the amount of fat that goes into these, especially because you couldn’t tell from eating them. The lard or shortening is what makes these incredibly flaky. You will need a very thin rolling pin that is at least 15 inches long and no thicker than the stick of a broom; you can find one at a hardware store or a woodshop.

Requesón is a slightly grainy, lightly salted cheese somewhere between ricotta and pot cheese. Lime zest complements the cheese filling hidden inside the golden, flaky crust. These are a really nice option for a brunch menu, and if you make the dough ahead of time, you can make these in a jiffy!

You know how people love to eat muffin tops? Well, these muffins have a topping on the sides as well. Whenever we bought them, my mom would always take a bit off the top, then the sides, and leave the center in the tray as if it was the most natural thing to do! Their flavor is deliciously subtle and they are a favorite among my whole family.

Ah, the conchas! These wonderful soft breads with their crunchy shelllike topping are a favorite in Mexico. This particular recipe is based on one made by Irving Quiros, a pastry instructor at the Colegio Superior de Gastronomía in Puebla. The dough is almost like a brioche, and the buttery bun makes wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth conchas. To make a chocolate topping, substitute 3 tablespoons cocoa powder for 3 tablespoons flour.

Any kind of round cookie with a hole in the middle is called a rosquilla. Esther Villarreal Garza from Monterrey makes these sugary ones with a lovely orange flavor.

Whenever I think of meringues in Mexico, I think of big crunchy pillows adorned with sliced almonds and imagine my shirt filled with crumbs as I hold it in my hand, eager to reach the center that cradles little threads of chewiness. These meringues are a direct import from the French with no real adaptations. In the Mayan region (Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Campeche) however, the meringues are a more delicate matter. They have a slightly crunchy exterior and a very soft, cottonlike interior perfumed with lime zest and sweetened with a lot of sugar. I was very curious about how these particular meringues were made and visited the home of Geny Beatriz Camal Ruiz, a candy artisan in Bacalar, Quintana Roo. Beatriz begins preparing her candies at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning so that she is ready by 9:00 A.M. (after she has fed her children and husband, showered, and cleaned her house) to fill her cart and go to the center of Chetumal and sell her sweet treats. Geny, like many other candy makers of the region, uses lime zest to avoid an unpleasant eggy taste that often occurs because of the heat. Spoonfuls of batter are gently placed on top of an aluminum tub with a little water to prevent sticking. She then places a comal on top of the tub and hot charcoal on top of it. This way, the meringue cooks from top to bottom, leaving the center soft and seemingly uncooked. The coal provides a wonderful smoky background but does not distract from the vibrant lime zest. I tried to do these in a home kitchen with terrible results and am very grateful that Nick Malgieri, a wonderful and sweet pastry chef, was able to help me out and achieve the texture I was looking for. You will need five baking sheets for this recipe, so borrow some if you don’t have enough.

Although this is not one of the most traditional recipes, I have seen it in different areas of the country, probably because it combines two of our favorite things: corn and flan. Most of the corn flans I have tasted are made with condensed milk, so I’ve tried to recreate that flavor and texture. Make this with white corn at the peak of the season to ensure that the flavor really comes through.

As weird as it may sound, whenever I think of these, I think of the trunk of a car. You see, parked around the streets of Mexico City are numerous cars filled with towers of corn breads. Their trunks are open and there is a cardboard sign announcing the delicacies for sale. This particular recipe takes only a few minutes to prepare (plus baking time, of course) and the result is very tasty and moist. Enjoy a slice with a cup of cold milk or coffee.

These cookies from Tamaulipas get their crunchy texture from the lard and the corn flour. They are rarely glazed, but you may choose to brush a beaten egg white and dust with sugar before baking them, as I like to do.

These cookies are fragile and it is almost impossible not to get crumbs all over the place when eating them, but that is precisely their beauty! The Arabs brought polvorones to Spain during their occupation, and the Spaniards, in turn, brought the cookies to Mexico when they settled in the land. The recipes differ in several ways, but the main difference is the Arabs used butter and the Spanish used lard. Nowadays, you can find both kinds in Mexico and others made with shortening or margarine. I tested many, many recipes, because I wanted the most crumbly, meltin-your-mouth cookie with the least amount of human error possible. I ended up with this recipe, which is a hybrid of the two and may be made with or without nuts.

Antes are very old desserts that were prepared in many convents. They are similar to a layer cake and are made with marquesote or mamón (similar to a pound or génoise cake) that is soaked in syrup or liqueur, then filled with a fruit jam and colorfully adorned with fresh, dried, or crystallized fruit and often meringue and nuts. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, certain sweets were eaten before a meal, which is where the name of this dessert comes from: antes de means “prior to.” This particular ante was inspired by a recipe found in a manuscript from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. She used mamey, which I’ve replaced with mango because it is much more readily available and is a wonderful combination with the ground almonds and because it still represents the cultural blend apparent in the original recipe.

Although the original recipe calls for making your own chestnut purée, I like to use the chestnut purée from Spain or France to make this custard because it has a wonderful nutty flavor and silkiness. I met a nun in Puebla who told me they coated the mold with a bit of butter and sugar and topped the flan with apricot jam. I took this idea and made an apricot caramel to cover the bottom of the pan, and it turned out to be an unexpectedly pleasant combination that showcased flan in a whole new way.

This recipe is based on one in a magnificent book called Delicias de antaño by Teresa Castelló Yturbide and María Josefa Martínez del Río de Redo. The anise flavor comes from toasted aniseed as well as anise liqueur. These cookies are a unique preparation, because they are submerged in a sweet syrup after baking and dusted with sugar once they’ve dried out.

These cookies are unusual because you must make caramelized almonds, grind them, and then add them to the dough. But it’s worth it because it gives them a lovely and unexpected crunch.

Now, here’s an old faithful; every Thanksgiving spread requires a great apple pie. Not a whole lot to say about it—it’s tasty, of course—but the crumb topping takes this pie up a notch. It’s as though you added a leopard-skin belt to your little black dress. The brown sugar, cinnamon, and allspice don’t hurt, either

GINA My man is the quarterback of the house—and I love him for it! He may call the plays, but when he does, I execute the sweetness all over the field. The dark-brown sugar gives these cookies the toasty football color, and the coconut, toffee-candy bits, and pecans will keep him from getting sacked. Who wrote that play, Coach? Maybe you should put me in!

Easy to transport and to eat while unpacking, these moist and dense muffins are more like little pound cakes with blueberries than your typical crumbly muffin. If blueberries are out of season and you want to use frozen ones (a perfectly fine option!), increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.