Pan dulce

Description

This unusually shaped variety of sweet bread is a staple in Mexican cuisine. It has numerous sub-varieties, so every pan dulce usually has a name associated with its visual appearance, such as conchas (seashells), puerquitos or marranitos (little pigs), ojo de buey (ox eye), canastas (baskets), cuernos (horns), and espejos (mirrors). Pan dulce started when the Spanish brought wheat to Mexico during the Conquest, and a viceroy dipped his bread in a cup of hot chocolate. The people of Mexico were instantly hooked, and later started to establish their baking tradition where they adopted numerous French techniques in dough making, stemming from the French influence in 19th-century Mexico. They started to add their own ingredients such as corn flour, chocolate, vanilla, guava, pineapple, and sweet potatoes. Today, pan dulce is a tradition that is commonly enjoyed with a cup of hot cocoa or coffee, bought for merienda (mid-afternoon snack) in numerous family-owned local bakeries.