Breakfast and Brunch

Name: Huevo ranchero for one
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1 corn tortilla; 1/2 tablespoon light cooking oil (such as safflower or canola oil); 1/3 cup canned black beans or pinto beans, reheated (whole or refried); 1 large or extra large egg; 1/4 cup bottled or canned salsa (you can choose red or green)

Roles de canela

34 · Oct 20, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Roles de canela are one of the most common types of pan dulce you’ll see in a Mexican bakery. These fluffy cinnamon rolls have a dough base made from masa bizcocho, the same dough that’s used to make conchas and other popular types of pan dulce.

I love making these cinnamon rolls around the holidays, especially when I’m visiting family or they’re visiting me. Cooking for my family is my love language, so a breakfast spread with fluffy homemade cinnamon rolls hot from the oven, served with milk, hot chocolate or coffee on the side is an extra special way to let them know how much I love them. In fact, some of my happiest family holiday memories are of sitting around the table together, enjoying a meal and each other’s company.

mexican cinnamon rolls drizzled with icing

If you’re a pan dulce-lover you should check out my Guide to Mexican Pan Dulce with photos and descriptions of dozens of types of Mexican sweet bread! Some of my other favorite types of pan dulce to make at home include conchas, pan de muerto, orejas, and garibaldi.

It’s important that when baking for my family that I use traditional recipes that taste just like they always have, which means no skimping or substituting ingredients. It’s got to taste like it came from abuelita’s kitchen!

Ingredients you’ll need for this recipe

It’s easier to make your own roles de canela than you might think! The hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise twice. You can also make this dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

There are three key ingredients to making the dough that you should not substitute.

Whole milk: Many baking recipes call for whole milk because it provides structure, flavor and moisture. The fat in whole milk also contributes to the tenderness of the bread.

Whole milk not only serves as a crucial structural ingredient to this recipe, but also helps achieve that perfectly browned color on top, while keeping the inside moist and fluffy.

milk in a pitcher in the foreground in front of a pan of mexican cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven

Bread flour: You want to use this because it contains more protein and therefore can absorb the milk and other liquid in this high-hydration dough in order to give it its elasticity and make it both light and chewy.

Fast-rise or instant yeast: This type of yeast does not need to be activated before you use it, so it makes the recipe quicker and easier. You’ll throw the yeast in the mixing bowl with the other dry ingredients and save a couple steps and a little time in prep work.

You’ll also need:

Granulated sugar
1 Large egg
Unsalted butter
Pure vanilla extract
Kosher Salt
Dark brown sugar
Ground cinnamon
Pecans
Powdered sugar

Kitchen tools you’ll need

For perfect pan dulce every time, I recommend the following tools:

A kitchen scale to ensure your ingredient measurements are precise
A bench scraper to help you make more precise cuts in the dough
A greased 6-quart clear food container or large glass bowl to give the dough room to proof properly
A stand mixer with a dough hook attachment

Note: While you CAN knead this dough by hand, it is absolutely tedious to do so and takes a lot longer. I highly recommend using a stand mixer to do the hard work for you.

How to make roles de canela

Make your dough in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment following the directions below in the recipe. Add ingredients in the order listed.

This is a high-hydration dough, meaning it will be sticky. The dough is ready to come out of the mixer when it mostly pulls away from the sides and sticks to the hook. Do not add extra flour to the dough, as the bread flour will absorb the liquid as the dough rises. Allow dough to rise undisturbed until it’s doubled in size, about two hours.

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the filling and glaze. Add room temperature unsalted butter, ground cinnamon, dark brown sugar, pure vanilla extract and salt to your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and combine on medium speed until the filling looks like a paste.

To prepare the glaze, mix powdered sugar and whole milk in a small bowl and set aside.

Once the dough has doubled in size, sprinkle all-purpose flour on your work surface to prevent the dough from sticking. Turn the dough out onto the surface and gently roll into a 9×13 rectangle shape. Be sure not to roll the dough too thin, as this will prevent it from rising properly during the second rise, and absorbing sugar during the baking process.

Use a spoon or offset spatula to gently spread the filling over the rectangle-shaped dough, leaving 1/2 inch around the edges.

spreading cinnamon roll filling on the dough

Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly over the filling.

Cinnamon roll dough spread with cinnamon sugar butter filling and sprinkled with chopped pecans

Roll from the long side inward and tuck the dough seam underneath.

Use your bench scraper to cut 6-12 equally sized rolls and place in a 9×9 parchment-paper lined pan and cover with a lightweight kitchen towel. Allow to rise again, undisturbed, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until rolls have doubled in size.

After the second rise, the rolls should look like this:

Bake in a 350 degree F preheated oven for 15 minutes, until the top of the rolls are sufficiently browned but not burned. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then drizzle glaze over the top of the rolls in a diagonal pattern. Allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes before serving.

What to serve with roles de canela

At home, I love to pair my pan dulce with warm beverages, especially on chilly fall and winter mornings. Here are some of my favorite drinks with milk you can either use to drink or dunk your pan dulce:

Roles de canela

Author: Maura Wall Hernandez
Prep Time: 25 minutes active, 4 hours inactive
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours, 40 minutes
Yield: 9 rolls 1x
Method: Baking
Cuisine: Mexican

Print Recipe

Description

Roles de canela are Mexico’s answer to the cinnamon roll and are one of the most common types of pan dulce seen in a panadería.

Ingredients

Scale

For the bread:

200 grams bread flour
36 grams granulated sugar
5 grams fast-rise instant yeast
100 grams whole milk
1 large egg, room temperature
40 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 grams kosher salt

For the filling:

113 grams (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pinch kosher salt
1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole milk

For greasing the container where you’ll proof the dough:

Cooking spray

For flouring your work surface:

All-purpose flour, as needed

Instructions

Add bread flour, sugar, and fast-rise instant yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook attachment, turn mixer to speed 2 to combine dry ingredients.
Add warm milk, 1 large egg, and butter to the bowl and increase speed to 4 for 5 minutes.
Add pure vanilla extract and kosher salt to the bowl and continue to mix on speed 4 for about another 10 minutes, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and mostly gathers around the hook. You may need to stop the mixer partway through to scrape down the sides with a spatula so no dough is wasted.
Prepare a large glass bowl or a 6-quart food container with lid for proofing the dough by spraying the inside with cooking spray so the dough won’t stick to the sides.
Turn the dough out from the stand mixer bowl into the bowl or container to proof and cover. Allow dough to rise undisturbed for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a floured surface (use all-purpose flour for this part, just enough so the dough doesn’t stick to your work surface). Gently roll out to 9×13 with a floured rolling pin. It’s OK if your dough isn’t a perfect rectangle.
In a stand mixer, make the filling with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar first, then add ground cinnamon, pure vanilla extract and kosher salt. Mix on speed 4 until well combined.
Using a spoon or offset spatula, spread the filling mixture on your rolled out dough, leaving about 1/2 inch around the edges.
Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly over the filling and gently roll starting with the long side inward. Tuck the dough seam underneath the roll.
Using a bench scraper or very sharp knife, divide the dough into 9 equal pieces. Arrange them in a 9×9 parchment paper-lined pan and cover with a kitchen towel for the second rise, until doubled in size. This should take about an hour and a half to two hours.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for about 15 minutes, until the tops and sides are sufficiently browned but not burned.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before drizzling the icing. Allow icing to set for 10 minutes and serve immediately.

Notes

TO MAKE THE DOUGH AHEAD OF TIME: Make the dough the night before and allow it to rise overnight in the refrigerator. Keep the bowl or container covered so the dough does not lose moisture. The cold temperature of the refrigerator will slow the growth of the yeast, but overnight will be plenty of time for the dough to double in size. It’s OK if it rises a bit more. If it hasn’t risen enough, allow it to rise for about 30 minutes on your countertop undisturbed.

Keywords: roles de canela, cinnamon rolls, pan dulce

Pan de muerto

85 · Oct 5, 2020 · 1 Comment

Pan de muerto is a yeasted sweet bread perfumed with orange blossom water or orange zest and dusted with a sugar topping. This pan dulce is typically eaten to celebrate Day of the Dead and is also given as an offering on altars for Día de los Muertos.

close up of Mexican pan de muerto on a baking sheet

In fact, the most common offering on an altar for Día de los Muertos, aka Day of the Dead, is pan de muerto (literally: “bread of the dead”). Alongside other items included in the ofrenda, the bread is intended to honor the souls of our loved ones who return to visit us and give them nourishment. Other items on the altar may include food and drinks loved by the deceased, trinkets and other symbolic offerings such as marigold flowers (known in Spanish as cempazuchitl), sugar skulls, papel picado, candles and more. You can read more about the symbolic elements of the altar in my post about How to Celebrate Day of The Dead. This holiday is celebrated on November 2, known to Catholics as All Souls’ Day.

Mexican Day of the Dead altar with pan de muerto and other symbolic elements

Pan de muerto represents an earthly gift and the generosity of the host. The bread dough contains orange blossom water and is often topped with sugar or sesame seeds, depending on the region of Mexico. The dough decorating the top represents bones.

Depending on the region of Mexico you visit this time of year, you may notice that there are other forms this bread can take such as little people, dolls or half-moons. The traditional shape is round with the dough arranged on the top to represent bones. The dough ingredients may also vary slightly according to region, sometimes containing anise seeds or orange zest. In Mexico City, the sugar topping is the most popular. Some areas of Mexico use pink or red sugar, but the most common is plain, uncolored sugar.

In the past, it was common for pan de muerto to be sold in panaderías only a few days prior to Día de los Muertos, but with the growing interest in the holiday outside of Mexico and modern supply and demand marketing, you’re likely to see pan de muerto in grocery stores and some bakeries in Mexico City as early as late August and early September. Even for those who don’t actually celebrate the holiday, it’s common to buy pan de muerto to consume this time of year.

Mexican pan de muerto fresh from the oven on a baking sheet sitting atop a cooling rack

The pan de muerto form you see pictured here is the most common you’ll find in Mexico City; the round base represents a grave mound covering the coffin, the dough shaped like bones represents the arms and legs, and the ball of dough on top represents the skull. The bread itself is made from the same masa bizcocho dough that is used to make conchas, roles de canela, pan de anís, novias, chilindrinas, rebanadas and other similar types of Mexican pan dulce.

You might also like: A-Z Guide to Mexican Pan Dulce

In Oaxaca, the base of pan de muerto is made with their traditional pan de yema, and is sometimes adorned with sesame seeds. In other areas of Mexico, this bread carries other names and has more elaborate decoration as well.

This recipe can make 6 small individual rolls, 4 medium individual rolls, or 2 large pan de muerto breads for sharing with up to 4 people. If you want to make this recipe as one large bread, you may need to adjust the baking time by adding a few minutes.

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Margarita-glazed doughnuts

5 · Jan 21, 2019 · Leave a Comment

These margarita-glazed doughnuts are a fun recipe to impress your adult guests for breakfast or brunch—it’s like having a cocktail for breakfast without the buzz!

If you’ve been a longtime reader, then you know we love biscuit doughnuts in our house! They’re super easy to make, and the icing only takes a few minutes to whisk together. A couple of bakeries in LA have a margarita-glazed doughnut that I really liked, so I thought I’d try making my own at home and these were pretty spectacular! The icing really does taste like a margarita….

Mexican chocolate-glazed doughnuts

10 · Sep 29, 2017 · 2 Comments

Try these Mexican chocolate-glazed doughnuts as a decadent treat you can serve to any crowd for breakfast or brunch.

These biscuit doughnuts are incredibly easy to make, and the frosting is something you can whip up in a flash. Just keep a can of flaky biscuit dough in the refrigerator and you’ll be set for any breakfast. In fact, these are so easy, you can even make them on a weekday. Any pan dulce-lover will definitely be impressed by the familiar flavors.

How to make Mexican chocolate-glazed doughnuts with biscuit dough, recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com

I’ve previously shared a recipe here for hibiscus-glazed doughnuts, and these follow the same method of using Pillsbury flaky biscuit dough for extreme ease. (Seriously, even people who don’t consider themselves bakers can do it.)

RELATED RECIPE: How to make orejas

If you’ve never made biscuit doughnuts, you have no idea what you’re missing! My husband was such a huge fan of these that he ended up eating two in one sitting.

For the frosting on these, I chose to garnish with a drizzle of dulce de leche, but feel free to leave it out or come up with another idea to make your doughnuts look pretty. (I like the squeeze bottles of Nestle dulce de leche to get an even drizzle.) You can also garnish with a little bit of chopped or crumbled Mexican chocolate sprinkled on top of the glaze before it’s set.

It’s OK if the glaze isn’t completely smooth; sometimes the powdered Mexican chocolate gets tiny clumps, but that’s part of the charm of being imperfect but still incredibly tasty. There are two brands of Mexican chocolate that come powdered: Abuelita and Ibarra. I like them both and think it’s a matter of personal preference as to which one you like better. The Ibarra is what I happened to have in my cabinet recently, and I think it’s a little more finely ground than the Abuelita.

Ibarra Mexican chocolate made into frosting

Can I reheat biscuit doughnuts?

They’re great when they come straight out of the frying pan once the glaze is dried, but they don’t taste the same reheated (plus the icing can run when reheated). If you won’t make them all at once, separate the dough and refrigerate what you won’t eat right away. It’s easy to store leftover glaze, and that will taste fine the second day. Just cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator, too. Bring to room temperature when you’re ready to glaze a fresh batch.

RELATED RECIPE: Churro French toast

Mexican chocolate-glazed doughnuts

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

Author: Maura Wall Hernandez
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 10 servings 1x
Category: Breakfast
Method: Frying
Cuisine: Mexican

Print Recipe

Description

Mexican chocolate-glazed doughnuts made with Pillsbury flaky biscuit dough are an easy and decadent treat you can serve to any crowd for breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients

Scale

Canola oil (pour enough so it’s 1 inch deep in your pot)
1 can of Pillsbury Grands flaky layers original biscuits

For the frosting:

3/4 cup Ibarra or Abuelita powdered Mexican chocolate (sold in most Mexican grocery stores and online at Amazon)
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar (aka powdered sugar)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup whole milk

For garnish:

dulce de leche or roughly chopped Mexican chocolate

Instructions

Pour about 1 inch deep of canola oil into your pan. Heat over medium to bring the oil to temperature.
Remove the biscuits from the packaging and place them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Use a small circular cookie cutter or a small juice glass to cut circles out of the middle of the biscuits. You should have 8 doughnuts and 8 doughnut holes.
When the oil is ready, it should bubble or pop very slightly. You can test its readiness with one of the doughnut holes if you’re not sure. The dough should start frying immediately after touching the oil. Add the doughnuts to the oil 3-4 at a time and fry for a minute or two, until the dough starts to turn golden. Flip them gently with a wooden spoon or tongs. When they’re done frying, remove from the oil and place them on a paper towel-lined dish to drain any remaining oil. Repeat with the remaining doughnuts.
While the doughnuts are cooling off a bit and draining excess oil, add 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, 3/4 cup powdered Mexican chocolate, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to a bowl. Mix with a spoon, then add the 1/4 cup whole milk (skim and 1% are too thin; don’t substitute!). Stir the mixture until it’s a relatively smooth consistency. Some small lumps are OK and the glaze should be thick. (If the glaze is too thick, you can add another tablespoon of whole milk.)
Dip the tops of the doughnuts in the icing, twisting them slightly to ensure they’re coated evenly all the way around the tops. Place them on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet to dry.
Garnish with a drizzle of dulce de leche (as pictured) or roughly chopped Mexican chocolate.

Keywords: biscuit doughnut, mexican chocolate

Mexican Eggs Benedict

15 · May 26, 2017 · 2 Comments

Eggs Benedict is one of the most popular breakfast dishes served in the United States, so I gave it a Mexican makeover with chorizo, ancho chile hollandaise, and Herdez Guacamole Salsa.

This post is part of a compensated campaign in collaboration with HERDEZ® and #WeAllGrow Latina Network. All opinions and the recipe here are my own.

I would eat breakfast food for three meals a day if nobody prevented me from doing it. I LOVE poached eggs, and I’m no stranger to spreading chorizo on avocado toast, so I already knew Herdez Guacamole Salsa would pair perfectly with this dish.

The creamy texture of real avocado and the spicy kick of salsa verde is what makes the salsa so unique. You can use it for topping, dipping and cooking—there’s no wrong way to do it!…

Weekday huevos rancheros

7 · Mar 20, 2017 · 1 Comment

Huevos rancheros are a popular Mexican breakfast dish, but they don’t have to be complicated or time-consuming to make.

With a couple of store-bought ingredients, you can make them quickly enough to eat breakfast at home before work!

Eating breakfast every day is important to me. Don’t you just feel like you’re starting the day off right when you sit down and eat breakfast without being in a hurry? I started waking up a little bit earlier so I could have some daily quiet time to eat breakfast, sip my tea or coffee, and read the newspaper. Since last year, I’ve been eating a decent breakfast a lot more consistently and I notice I make better choices throughout the day when I’ve had breakfast at home.

And as much as I love stuff like churro french toast or pancakes on the weekend, I really need to eat a protein-rich breakfast on weekdays so that I don’t snack on too much sugary crap during the day. And as much as I love a trenza de huevo con chorizo for breakfast, unless I make it the night before, it’s a little too much work when I’m trying to get out the door quickly in the mornings.

Sometimes José will wake up early and make breakfast for me before work, which is such a treat. I love this huevo ranchero for one recipe because it’s so simple but SO good. To cut down on prep time, we just use canned beans (the preferred brand in our house is La Costeña) and Herdez bottled salsas (the red is called salsa casera and the green is salsa verde).

A huevos rancheros recipe so easy you can make them on a Monday morning! Recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com

Huevo ranchero for one

Prep 5 mins

Cook 5 mins

Total 10 mins

Author Maura Wall Hernandez

Yield 1 serving

A classic Mexican breakfast made easier with some store-bought ingredients.

Ingredients

1 corn tortilla
1/2 tablespoon light cooking oil (such as safflower or canola oil)
1/3 cup canned black beans or pinto beans, reheated (whole or refried)
1 large or extra large egg
1/4 cup bottled or canned salsa (you can choose red or green)

Instructions

Heat 1/3 cup of beans and 1/4 cup salsa and set aside.
In a skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon canola oil over medium heat. Lightly fry the tortilla on both sides and transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain off any excess oil; discard the paper towel. Spread the beans over one side of the tortilla.
In the skillet, there should still be a little bit of oil. Crack the egg into the skillet and cook the egg sunny side up, 1-2 minutes until the white is opaque and the yolk has slightly set.
With a spatula, transfer the egg on top of the beans. Pour the warm salsa gently over the top of the egg and serve.

Courses Breakfast

Cuisine Mexican

RELATED RECIPE: Huevo con chorizo breakfast tacos

Easy Hibiscus-Glazed Doughnuts

19 · Jan 1, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Impress everyone with this easy recipe for hibiscus-glazed doughnuts for breakfast. They look fancy but you won’t believe how quick they are to make!

Who doesn’t love doughnuts for breakfast? I don’t trust anyone who says they don’t. I first got the idea to make this doughnut recipe when Fany Gerson posted a photo on Instagram of a similar-looking doughnut she was making at her doughnut shop in Brooklyn—appropriately called Dough. If you’re not familiar with Fany, she’s one of my favorite people in the culinary world and she wrote a beautiful book called “My Sweet Mexico” in 2010 that has made me one of her biggest fans. As a lover of pan dulce and Mexican candies and desserts, her book was the first one I found that made these treasured recipes accessible in English.

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Chorizo avocado toast with poached eggs

1 · May 11, 2015 · 1 Comment

Avocado toast may be all the rage, but you haven’t really lived until you’ve had chorizo and avocado toast topped with a poached egg.

This recipe has been one of my long-lasting breakfast obsessions. After all, who doesn’t love avocado toast? But I can’t just make plain avocado toast, guys. No. I had to put some chorizo on it, too. Because… why not? Once you make this creation at home, you’ll be asking yourself why you didn’t think of this sooner. And with a poached egg perched atop, a runny yolk sprinkled with some fancy flaked sea salt just puts this dish into a category above and beyond your usual breakfast.

RELATED RECIPE: Trenza de huevo con chorizo…

Huevos al albañil

33 · Dec 19, 2014 · 3 Comments

This post is part of a compensated campaign with BUSH’S Cocina LatinaTM and Latina Bloggers Connect but all opinions and the recipe here are my own.

Holiday vacation is my favorite time of year because it means I have time to make a special breakfast every day! This version of huevos al albañil, also known as bricklayer’s eggs, is a popular breakfast dish in Mexico.

The key to what makes huevos al albañil different from other egg dishes is that the eggs are scrambled and mixed with salsa, and cooked together so the salsa fuses with the eggs. They shouldn’t be too soupy when cooked; just wet enough that the salsa keeps everything moist. Whether you prefer to use salsa verde or salsa roja is up to you! The dish is served layered from the bottom up with a fried tortilla, beans, a scrambled egg and salsa mixture and then toppings such as crema mexicana and queso cotija, if desired.

RELATED RECIPE: Trenza de huevo con chorizo…

How to make orejas

802 · Nov 4, 2014 · 11 Comments

Orejas, also known as palmiers, are a puff pastry cookie and kind of pan dulce commonly found in panaderías all over Mexico.

Pan dulce was made popular during the French occupation in the mid 1800s, and as Mexican President Porfirio Díaz was considered to be a Francophile, French influence on Mexico’s gastronomy was allowed to grow from the time Díaz first took control as president in 1880 and flourish into the early 1900s.

In 1911, Díaz left Mexico to live in exile in Paris when Madero became president; he would live there for four years before he died in 1915. And although Díaz died in exile, the French pastries and sweet breads adopted by Mexico morphed into uniquely Mexican creations, with a variety of shapes, textures and creative names that still exist today.

RELATED RECIPE: Cafe de olla

Pan dulce can encompass pastries, sweet breads and even cookies. Other popular kinds of pan dulce include conchas (circular sweet rolls with a sugary, crunchy, crumbly topping made of flour, confectioners’ sugar and butter or vegetable shortening, and shaped to resemble a seashell), sweet empanadas, mantecadas (similar to pound cake, and shaped like muffins or mini loaves), cuernitos (croissants), and puerquitos or marranitos (pig-shaped cookies). Of course, these are only a few of the most popular and common kinds of pan dulce. Some types have a directly translated name from the original French name, but others have more creative names in Spanish.

Orejas are a staple at my house and I often make a batch to enjoy with a cup of coffee throughout the week, to take to work for a breakfast meeting, or when I need to drop off something easy for a bake sale or party. Some of my other favorite variations include churros, garibaldi, and rieles (mini strudels with a fruit or cheese filling and coarse-grain sanding sugar).

RELATED RECIPE: Atole de vainilla

Orejas are made by spreading cinnamon sugar on both sides of a sheet of puff pastry, then rolling the puff pastry with a rolling pin to press the cinnamon sugar into the pastry. Then, the pastry is folded and sliced, and baked at a high temperature so the sugar caramelizes and creates a sort of glassy sugar glaze on the pastry dough.

Although every Mexican panadería is a little different, it’s guaranteed you’ll always find orejas. But you’ll feel like a fancy pastry chef and a little bit like a rock star when you make them on your own—and you’re likely to impress people who have no idea how easy they are to make!

3 votes

Orejas

Prep 10 mins

Cook 9 mins

Inactive 45 mins

Total 1 hour, 4 mins

Author Maura Wall Hernandez

Yield 15-16 cookies

One of Mexico's most popular kinds of pan dulce.

Ingredients

1 sheet Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, defrosted
½ cup Zulka morena granulated cane sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Line a large cutting board with parchment paper and unfold the puff pastry sheet to defrost for about 45 minutes to an hour.
When pastry is defrosted, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread about ¼ cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture on it, roughly in the shape of the puff pastry.
Transfer the defrosted puff pastry to the baking sheet on top of the cinnamon sugar and peel the parchment paper off the other side. Spread the remaining ¼ cup of cinnamon sugar liberally over the top of the puff pastry.
Use a rolling pin to gently roll out the puff pastry both horizontally and vertically, which will cement the sugar into the pastry.
Fold the puff pastry inward from the edges to meet in the middle. Then fold again, in half. With a sharp knife, cut half-inch slices and transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 5-7 minutes on one side, remove from oven and flip orejas with a spatula, and bake for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Notes

Recipe prep and cook time does NOT include 45-60 minutes of inactive prep to defrost frozen puff pastry sheets.

Courses Breakfast

Cuisine Mexican

Trenza de huevo con chorizo

8 · Apr 25, 2014 · 3 Comments

This savory Mexican breakfast pastry braid stuffed with scrambled eggs and chorizo—known as a trenza de huevo con chorizo—is a simple recipe to please your breakfast or brunch crowd.

If you ask me, breakfast pastries are a pretty genius invention, whether they’re sweet or savory. And I admit it: I will pretty much eat anything wrapped in puff pastry. It’s one of my weaknesses. This recipe is one of my go-to breakfast or brunch recipes when I’m trying to do something fancy that looks like I put in a ton of effort but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen cooking. I like to serve slices of this savory breakfast pastry braid with coffee, fresh-squeezed juice and seasonal fruit.

If you like, you can choose other mix-ins with your scrambled eggs such as chile poblano strips and onion, chiltomate (a salsa made with Roma tomatoes and chile habanero), or anything else you normally would scramble in with eggs.

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Churro French Toast

4 · May 26, 2013 · 1 Comment

If you’ve ever wanted to eat churros for breakfast, prepare yourself because all your dreams are about to come true. This recipe for churro french toast is one near and dear to my heart and also one of my favorite dishes from my childhood.

In the town where I grew up, there was a restaurant we often went for breakfast or brunch, and churro french toast was my favorite thing on the menu. To this day, when I go home for a visit, I still order this dish.

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Get my FREE Brunch With Mom recipe ebook for Mother’s Day

1 · May 7, 2013 · 3 Comments

I’m excited to share that I’ve co-authored a bilingual recipe ebook, “Brunch With Mom,” that has 11 awesome brunch recipes for Mother’s Day by me and five other food writers. You don’t want to miss out on this cookbook full of drool-worthy photos and easy directions to make the perfect brunch!

I wrote two of the recipes in the book, which are pictured here below. If you make any of the recipes, share them on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #BrunchWithMom so we can see your masterpiece!

Trenza de huevo con chorizo | Egg and chorizo puff pastry braid

This fun and fancy variation on a traditional breakfast dish envelops the huevo con chorizo in a braided puff pastry dough to create a savory breakfast treat.

Latte Oaxaqueño | Oaxacan Latte

This spin on a regular old cafe latte uses Mexican chocolate for an Oaxacan twist. The secret: You don’t need a fancy coffee machine to make the foam! I teach you how to do it with a glass jar, milk and the microwave. Even your kids will be able to do this one.

My recipes and photos appear on pages 10-15 and 44-47. Get the whole ebook for FREE here (you need to create a free account to download or print it):
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Huevo con chorizo breakfast tacos

5 · Jun 11, 2012 · 2 Comments

Tacos for breakfast? You bet. One of the staple breakfast dishes that I like to eat both when I’m visiting Mexico and at home is huevo con chorizo in the form of a breakfast taco. Literally, it’s just egg and chorizo, but don’t think something so simple can’t still be satisfying.

Most people know how to make this easy and tasty breakfast, but surprisingly I still sometimes get asked how to make huevo con chorizo. Here are my step-by-step photos taken over breakfast this past weekend in case you’re not familiar with this dish….

Atole de fresa

23 · Jan 23, 2012 · 13 Comments

Long, cold winter nights mean one thing in my house: we’re making hot drinks to warm us up! One of my favorite cold-weather drinks is atole, especially because it’s customary to drink with breakfast or after dinner. The two most common flavors are vanilla and strawberry—atole de vainilla y atole de fresa. If you make it with chocolate, it’s called champurrado.

It’s a masa-based drink where the dissolved masa acts as a thickening agent to make this hot drink the kind of hearty treat that will really stick to your ribs. I’ve talked before about the availability of atole that comes in powdered packets, but next to my champurrado recipe (which uses prepared store-bought masa from my local tortillería), this version using Maseca instant corn masa flour is even easier to make and a sure step above the flavor from a packet. It’s a homemade taste without all the work of grinding your own nixtamal or having to dissolve masa using cheesecloth. It’s what you might call a semi-homemade version, if you will.

This drink dates back to pre-Columbian times in Mexico and is well documented as a form of sustenance amongst the Aztec and Mayan cultures. Historical texts tell us it was often flavored with fruits, spices or chiles.

Sometimes atole is also made with different colors of corn (I’ve personally tasted atole made with white, yellow and blue corn bases) and milk or water as the liquid. I don’t like my atole to be too thin so I have a habit of making it very thick at the beginning and then thinning it out with milk or water as needed. If you prefer yours to be thinner, you can use all water instead of milk, and reduce the portion of Maseca instant corn flour to your liking.

If you want more berry flavor, you can add another whole cup of strawberries and use more water than milk so it doesn’t thicken too much or dilute the berry flavor.

This recipe produces the best strawberry flavor when you use berries that are very ripe. A trick to my recipe is that I macerate the strawberries before I put them in the blender (which just means I slice them up and, place them in a bowl and sprinkle sugar over them to allow the natural juices to come out).

If you won’t consume the atole immediately after cooking, store in an airtight container with plastic wrap pressed to the top of the liquid so a skin doesn’t form over the top. If a skin does form, you can gently remove it with a spoon, but then you’re not getting to enjoy your whole batch. A final note: make sure the Maseca you’re using is specifically for tortillas and not tamales or you’ll get a different consistency.

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Wordless Wednesday: Choco Zucaritas invade my mercado

1 · Dec 21, 2011 · 1 Comment

Finally! The Choco Zucaritas cereal I love so much has, at last, appeared in my local market. I’m sure my friend Tracy will be thankful I can buy them in Chicago so she won’t have to send me another box from the Washington, D.C. area! If you’re in the Chicago area, I was shopping at Strack & Van Til on Elston when I spotted them this past weekend.

Have you seen them in your store yet? Have you tried them?

Wordless Wednesday: Choco Zucaritas

0 · Nov 16, 2011 · 7 Comments

A few weeks ago, I visited Washington, D.C. for the 2011 Blogalicious conference, where I got to spend lots of time with my blog amigas from all over the country. My friend Tracy from Latinaish, who lives in the area and was also attending, found out before the conference that I was a huge fan of Kellogg’s Choco Zucaritas (chocolate frosted flakes) and brought me a box as a gift! Now THAT is friendship. I took it all the way home to Chicago in my carry-on luggage so that the box wouldn’t get squished in my checked baggage. I’ve been eating Choco Zucaritas in Mexico ever since I discovered them a few years ago and was always bummed out that I couldn’t buy them in the U.S.—until now.

¡Gracias Tracy! I’m almost out, so I’m headed to the super this week to see if I can find a box here in Chicago.

What foods do you love to buy in Mexico that you can’t find in the U.S.? Tell me in the comments below!

GARIBALDI

39 · Jan 21, 2011 · 39 Comments

By now, you all know about my deeply rooted love for pan dulce, especially for a particular chochito-covered panque from El Globo called el garibaldi. In fact, El Globo is credited as the original maker of garibaldi, a little pound cake bathed in apricot jam and covered in white nonpareils. Many bakeries in Mexico try to emulate these little magical cakes, but nobody makes them quite like El Globo.

During our trips to Mexico City, we’ve always purchased them fresh to eat for breakfast. With a little café con leche, I can’t imagine a better way to start a day. On one occasion, we carefully wrapped a few to bring home with us to Chicago, but sadly they got slightly smashed in our carry-on luggage and from then on, we decided they didn’t travel well. And after eating garibaldi on countless visits to Mexico City, I returned from our most recent trip with a serious mission: to spend time in the test kitchen trying to recreate them so I wouldn’t have to wait until my next trip to Mexico to eat them. Looking at my calendar, five months is a long time – too long, if you ask me – to deny myself one of my favorite sweet treats….

Back to basics with breakfast: avena y té de manzanilla

2 · Jan 15, 2011 · 3 Comments

Since we’ve been back from Mexico, we’ve been very busy in the Tortilla Test Kitchen testing new recipes and having fun shooting new videos we’ll be sharing soon. But while we were in Mexico, we ate and ate…and ate and, well, you get the picture. I think I may have finally earned the affectionate nickname I’m sometimes called at home – Gordita, or Gordis, for short.

We decided we needed to bring a little order to our daily habits after eating to our hearts’ content for nearly a whole month. That’s not to say that healthy Mexican food doesn’t exist, because it definitely does and you will see more new examples of that on The Tortilla this year. However, it’s sometimes harder to make those healthy choices when most of the year I live in Chicago and can’t get some of my favorite Mexican foods.

It’s a bit like letting a kid loose in a candy store, only instead of a candy store, you’re dropping me off in a city full of taquerías that serve my favorite things like chicharrón de queso, tacos al pastor and Sidral Mundet apple-flavored soda. It’s hard to say no to all of that, knowing that in a short time, I’ll be back in Chicago without access to these things again until my next trip. There’s nothing wrong with eating or drinking all of those things if you do it in moderation, but sometimes we need a reminder that moderation is the key in order to stay healthy.

This year, we’ve decided to bring some good habits back from Mexico, such as eating breakfast daily. We started every day with a good breakfast during our visit and now I crave breakfast as soon as I wake up in the morning. In the past, I’ve been known to rush out the door in the morning without eating breakfast because I’m crunched for time, but I’m vowing to break that bad habit in 2011.

And for breakfast, there are so many healthy options. One of my suegro‘s favorites is avena con nueces o fruta y azúcar moreno, or oatmeal with nuts, fruit and a little brown sugar. I’m a huge fan of oatmeal, but truth be told, I don’t like the instant stuff with the artificial flavors. Since I’m usually on the go in the morning during the week, I often have to prepare something the night before to take with me to assure that I get a good, healthy choice….