Conchas

If you've been inside a Mexican supermarket you've probably seen Conchas, a sweet brioche bread with a crunchy streusel topping, in the bakery section.   I'd never eaten them before but was always intrigued by the beautiful shell colors of the buns.  It wasn't until I saw Thida Bevington give A Cozy Kitchen's recipe a try did I feel compelled to make them myself. 

Admittedly, the first batch of conchas I made did not impress me at all.  Granted, they looked fantastic, and even authentic I would say, but the taste wasn't to my liking.  The bread itself was too dough-y and felt quite dry.  I was in search of the light and fluffy interior that you would get from breads made using tangzhong, a water roux.  

On my second attempt I swapped out the dough for the pineapple bun (bolo bao) recipe from Cook's Illustrated.  Eureka!  The conchas came out fantastic!  Purists, pardon this blasphemous variation but I challenge you to have a taste and tell me they buns aren't amazing!  

Pineapple Bun Dough

Streusel Topping

Churros

I'm a big fan of Churros but never really thought to make them at home.  Why?  Because it requires deep frying and I prefer not to do that in my kitchen.  Plus, anytime you go to Costco you can easily buy one for $1 each.  But let's be honest, the Costco variety don't hold a candle to the best ones I've ever tasted which are the ones in Spain.    

When I found myself with some leftover frying oil I decided to bite the bullet and make some of these delicious pastries.  The dough is basically pâte à choux, very similar to what you'd use for cream puffs.  The only difference being you pipe the dough in to long strips and then deep fry.  Once they are nice and golden brown they are then rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture.   My favorite way to eat them is dipped in a chocolate sauce like they do for breakfast in Spain, churros con chocolate.

For the recipe I turned to one I found from Cook's Country.  Once you pipe the logs of dough you let them sit in the fridge for a while to firm up.   I had no trouble with piping, except towards the end when the dough was so stiff the bag burst!   As the churros were frying all seemed fine until they all developed this strange little hump on one end, as if air was trying to escape.  I'm not sure why the humps formed but at least it was consistent across all my churros.  Once cooled and rolled in cinnamon sugar all they needed was a dip in the chocolate sauce.  I'm telling you nothing compares to homemade churros - crispy and delicious!

Tres Leches Cake

Need a delicious cake to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (or any occasion for that matter)?  You've got to try this Tres Leches Cake from Cook's Country.   If you're not familiar with this Mexican dessert it's a sponge cake that is soaked in three types of "milk" (heavy cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk) and frosted with lightly sweetened whipped cream. 

I'm not a fan of versions that are completely drenched in milk; so much so they leave a puddle of liquid on your plate.   Rather, I prefer mine to be moist, not mushy.  This recipe gets it right.  

I've included the full recipe here which makes a 9x13 inch cake, but for the blog I made half the recipe and baked it in an 8x3 inch round cake pan.   Came out great!  

Note: Be sure to use all the milk mixture when you soak the baked cake.  I didn't (had about 1/4 cup of the liquid leftover) and found that I had a few dry pockets in the cake.