Tamales and Candlemas

Tamales and Candlemas

Back in 2021, I published a post explaining the origins of Candlemas (Día de la Candelaria in Spanish), why is celebrated on February 2, and why, in Mexico, food containing corn, and particularly tamales, are traditionally shared on this day.  Roaming through more recent posts, I found a couple more recipes for tamales, so in this post, I am sharing the original text, with an updated list ... click on title for more

Danish Dough Flaky Patties – Empanadas hojaldradas

Danish Dough Flaky Patties – Empanadas hojaldradas

One last classic recipe to use up my homemade Quick Danish Dough is for these delicious empanadas hojaldradas (flaky patties).  Mexican bakeries across the country offer flaky patties, with some of the most common fillings being red mole, tuna fish, cheese and roasted poblano peppers, and apple.  I chose the last three flavours for this post ... click on title for more

More Pan Dulce – Bowties and Cream Horns

More Pan Dulce – Bowties and Cream Horns

Continuing with more options for pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) to bake with the homemade Danish dough from my last post,  in addition to Danishes (spiral buns), European bakers introduced other well-known confections, such as tartaletas (small tarts), tecolotes (owls), rehiletes (pinwheels), and the two other classics in the Mexican bread basket I chose for this post, as seen in the photo above, moños (bowties) and cream horns, popularly known as cuernos de la abundancia (horns of plenty) ... click on title

Danish Dough Spirals – Rollos de pasta danesa

Danish Dough Spirals – Rollos de pasta danesa

Danish dough is a very versatile medium to create all sorts of pastries, both savoury and sweet.  Although in Denmark this type of pastries are called Vienna Bread (wienerbrød), since Austrian bakers introduced them there in the 1840s, they became popular worldwide as Danish pastries.   French and other European bakers established in Mexico, started creating these pastries a few decades later, and nowadays, pasta danesa (Danish dough) is used in several traditional types of pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread), such as the classic rollos (spirals or rolls) shown above, with a dollop of jam, or raisins ... click on title for more

Hojaldras – Flaky Buns

Hojaldras – Flaky Buns

In Central Mexico, and especially in Mexico City, these old-fashioned buns may still be found at bakeries (panaderías).  They are generically known as hojaldras (layered), usually called the same when filled with cooked shredded chicken and red mole, and known as Marinas when filled with slices of ham and cheese ... click on title for more