Looking for a Mexican sweet bread recipe? Want to know about the significance of Mexican sweet bread in the culture of Mexico? Our guide gives you the facts & information you want to know.
Mexican sweet bread, or Pan Dulce as it is often known, are small loaves of bread that are an excellent choice for a dessert or even a snack. Unlike most other pastries these days, Mexican sweet bread doesn’t typically contain any preservatives and would have customarily been served and eaten on the same day it was baked in order to maintain freshness and maximize the delicious taste.
Mexican Sweet Bread Ingredients
The specific ingredients that go into making Mexican sweet bread vary slightly depending on where you get your recipe from. There are several different regional variations of Mexican sweet bread just as there are with Mexican corn bread; however, there are certain ingredients that turn up in all Mexican sweet bread recipes. These include yeast, warm water, evaporated milk, white or brown sugar, salt, margarine or butter, eggs, flour, ground cinnamon and vanilla.
Mexican Sweet Bread Cooking Instructions
Firstly, the water and yeast need to be mixed by stirring. It’s important that the water is not cold as this will hamper the rising effect of the yeast later on in the preparation process. Next, you need to add the milk, sugar, melted butter, flour, salt and egg to the water and continue stirring until you get a mixture of uniform color and consistency. It’s also important to add only half the flour initially and stir the mixture before adding the rest of the flour. The cinnamon is added last before the mixture is needed into dough on a counter.
Kneading the dough for the Mexican sweet bread should take between 5-10 minutes and you’ll know when it’s ready when the dough is smooth and stretchy. Place the dough flat into a pan and keep it in a warm place to rise on its own for about an hour. When raising, the dough should be covered.
Mexican Sweet bread topping is one of the signature marks of this famous traditional bread and the secret of its sweetness. In a bowl mix together 2/3 cup of sugar with ½ cup of butter and continue to beat until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
After the dough has been given enough time to rise it should be divided into several smaller pieces, shaped into circular shapes and placed on a pre greased baking tray.
The Oven should be pre heated at 190 degrees C and the sweet bread should be bakes for 20 minutes. When the Mexican sweet bread turns light golden brown you’ll know its ready to take out of the oven.
Once baked, Mexican sweet bread can be eaten without any further need for garnishing. However, one popular way of presenting Mexican sweet bread is to make several criss cross lines across the top of the sweet bread loaves.
