Bolitas de Queso Yucatecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy rolling pin, preferably French style without handles
• •Pastry brush for the egg wash
• •Bench scraper for cutting and trimming the dough
• •Two heavy rimmed baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Wide shallow bowl for sugar coating
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the détrempe

   In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Add the softened lard and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand. In a separate bowl, whisk the ice water, vinegar, and egg yolk. Pour into the flour and bring it together with a wooden spoon, then your hands. Work it just until it holds. Overworked dough makes tough bolitas. The vinegar is not optional. It relaxes the gluten so the dough rolls out without fighting you back.

   The little bit of lard in the détrempe is a Yucatecan habit, not a French one. Manteca gives the dough a tenderness butter alone cannot match. La manteca es el sabor, even in pan dulce.
2. 2

   Rest the dough

   Flatten the dough into a 6-inch square, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Cold dough laminates cleanly. Warm dough tears and lets the butter escape. No me vengas con atajos en este paso.

3. 3

   Form the butter block

   While the dough rests, place the cold butter sticks side by side between two sheets of parchment. Pound with a rolling pin until pliable, then roll into a 6-inch square about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate the butter block until firm but still bendable, about 20 minutes. The butter and the dough must reach the same temperature and the same consistency. If one is harder than the other, the lamination breaks.

4. 4

   Encase the butter

   On a lightly floured surface, roll the rested dough into a 12-inch square. Place the butter block in the center on a 45-degree angle so the corners of the butter point at the centers of the dough's sides. Fold the four corners of dough over the butter like an envelope, pinching the seams shut. You should see no butter peeking through. Roll gently into a long rectangle, about 8 inches by 18 inches.

5. 5

   First two folds

   Give the dough a letter fold: fold the bottom third up, the top third down over it. This is one turn. Rotate 90 degrees so the seam is on your right, like a book ready to open. Roll out again to 8 by 18 inches and repeat the letter fold. Wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes. The dough should be cool to the touch before you roll it again. Warm butter melts into the dough and you lose the layers.

6. 6

   Final two folds

   Repeat the rolling and letter-folding two more times, for four turns total. Rest the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour after the final fold, or overnight. The longer rest gives you sharper layers and a cleaner rise. The cooks at the panaderías in Mérida do this work in the cool early morning before the Yucatecan heat sets in. Treat your kitchen the same way.

7. 7

   Make the cream cheese filling

   In a bowl, beat the room-temperature cream cheese with the 3/4 cup of sugar, the vanilla, and the lime zest until smooth and a little fluffy. Taste it. It should be sweet but not cloying, with the lime cutting through. Refrigerate for 15 minutes so it firms up enough to scoop. The lime is what makes this a Yucatecan filling and not a generic cream cheese pastry. The lima dulce of the peninsula has a perfume you will not find anywhere else in Mexico. Use what you can find, but use it.

8. 8

   Cut the dough

   Roll the rested dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick, roughly 16 by 20 inches. Trim the edges square. Cut into 24 squares of about 3 1/2 inches each. Work quickly. Keep any squares you are not using in the refrigerator. Warm puff pastry collapses.

9. 9

   Shape the bolitas

   Place a heaping teaspoon of cold cream cheese filling in the center of each square. Bring the four corners up over the filling and pinch them together at the top, then pinch the four seams along the sides to seal. Roll gently between your palms into a smooth ball, seam side down. The seal must be tight or the filling escapes in the oven and you lose the bolita.

10. 10

    Rest and egg wash

    Arrange the balls seam side down on two parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cold pastry rises straight up in the oven instead of flopping sideways. Brush the tops with the egg wash. Do not let the wash drip down the sides. Egg wash on the seam glues the layers shut and stops the rise.

11. 11

    Bake

    Heat the oven to 400°F. Bake the bolitas for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating the trays halfway, until they are puffed, deep golden brown, and the layers are clearly visible on the sides. Underbaked puff pastry is doughy inside and there is no fixing it. Trust the color. Dark golden, not pale yellow.

    If you see a bolita splitting open early in the bake, do not open the oven to fix it. Opening the door drops the temperature and ruins the rise of every other one on the tray. Let it be.
12. 12

    Sugar coat while warm

    Let the bolitas cool on the trays for 5 minutes. They need to be warm, not hot, or the sugar dissolves into syrup. Pour the 1 cup of sugar into a wide shallow bowl. Roll each bolita in the sugar until completely coated, pressing gently so the sugar sticks to every side. Set them on a wire rack. The sugar should look like snow, not a glaze. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Real puff pastry takes a cool kitchen. If your house runs warm, work in the early morning or chill the rolling pin between turns. Warm butter inside cold dough is what gives you layers. Melted butter is what gives you a flat disc.
• •If you cannot get lima dulce yucateca, the zest of a Persian lime will do, but add a half teaspoon of orange blossom water to the filling to compensate for the floral notes you are missing. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The cream cheese must be full-fat. Low-fat cream cheese has too much water and will leak out of the pastry in the oven, leaving you with empty bolitas and a sheet pan full of melted sugar. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Buy a kitchen thermometer for your oven if you do not own one. Home oven thermostats lie. A bolita that bakes at 375 instead of 400 will not rise the way it should and you will blame the dough.

Advance Preparation

• •The laminated dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and held wrapped tightly in the refrigerator. Bring back to a workable temperature for 10 minutes before rolling.
• •The cream cheese filling keeps refrigerated for up to 3 days.
• •The dough also freezes well for up to 1 month after the final fold. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before shaping.
• •Bolitas are best eaten the day they are baked. After that the pastry softens and the sugar absorbs moisture. If you must make ahead, freeze the shaped, unbaked balls on a tray, transfer to a bag, and bake straight from frozen, adding 4 to 5 minutes to the baking time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 80g)