Campechanas Hidalguenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or strong hands and patience
• •Thin wooden palote or 3/4-inch dowel at least 18 inches long
• •Bench scraper
• •Heavy rimmed sheet pans
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the lard

   Use clean white manteca de cerdo that smells mild and sweet, not like chicharron. If your lard smells strongly of pork, save it for beans. For pastry you need fat that gives flake without taking over the sugar. La manteca es el sabor, but only when the manteca is right.

2. 2

   Make the dough

   In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 3 1/2 cups of the flour, the salt, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and 2 ounces of the lard. Mix with the dough hook on low until the lard disappears into the flour. Add 1 1/4 cups tepid water in a slow stream and knead 10 to 12 minutes, until the dough pulls from the bowl and feels smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky. If dry patches remain, add the extra water 1 tablespoon at a time. Dry dough tears. Torn dough leaks fat.

3. 3

   Rest the dough

   Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces with a bench scraper. Do not rip it apart with your hands. Shape each piece into a smooth ball, rub the surface with a thin coat of lard, cover with a clean towel, and rest for 30 minutes. The rest is not laziness. It lets the dough relax so you can roll it thin without fighting it.

4. 4

   Make the paste

   Stir 1 cup flour with 4 ounces of the lard until you have a smooth, spreadable paste, thick like crema. This paste separates the layers. Plain lard melts too quickly and runs out. Flour gives the fat a body so it stays between the sheets while the oven does its work.

5. 5

   Prepare the table

   Grease a clean work surface with lard. Grease a thin wooden palote or dowel, at least 18 inches long and no thicker than a broomstick handle. Do not dust the table with flour unless the dough is truly sticking. Extra flour dries the surface and makes the campechanas tough. Lard lets the layers slide.

6. 6

   Roll the first sheet

   Place one rested dough ball on the greased table and flatten it with your palms. Roll from the center outward until the dough is very thin, roughly 12 by 18 inches, with the table almost visible through it. Work calmly. If a corner resists, let it sit one minute and come back. The dough tells you when it is ready.

   If the dough tears in a small place, pinch it closed and keep working. If it tears everywhere, it was not rested enough or it is too dry.
7. 7

   Laminate on the stick

   Spread half of the flour-lard paste in a thin, even coat over the rolled dough. Grease the palote again and roll the dough tightly around it, keeping the roll even from end to end. Slide the dough off the palote into a long coil. Gently stretch the coil to about 26 to 28 inches, then press it lightly to flatten. This is the panadera's move. The stick builds layers faster than folding, and it gives the pastry that explosive flake in the oven.

8. 8

   Cut and shape

   Cut the flattened coil into 3 to 4 inch pieces. Place them on heavy, lightly greased sheet pans, leaving at least 2 inches between each piece. Press each piece into a thin oval or rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Repeat the rolling, pasting, coiling, stretching, and cutting with the second dough ball. Chill the shaped pastries for 20 minutes while the oven heats to 375F. Cold fat makes cleaner layers. Así se hace y punto.

9. 9

   Sugar the tops

   Rub a very thin film of lard over the top of each pastry. Cover generously with the remaining cane sugar. Do not tap it timidly like perfume. Cover it. The sugar is what becomes the caramel shell, and a campechana without that shell is just a tired piece of dough.

10. 10

    Bake and caramelize

    Bake at 375F for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the pastries puff, the edges turn pale gold, and the sugar begins to melt. Raise the oven to 425F and bake 4 to 6 minutes more, watching closely, until the tops turn glossy amber. If one side colors faster, rotate the pan again. Dark brown sugar tastes bitter. Amber sugar tastes like the panaderia counter at four in the afternoon.

11. 11

    Cool completely

    Let the campechanas cool on the pans for 10 minutes, then move them carefully to a rack. The caramel is dangerous when hot and fragile when warm. Once cool, the tops should be shiny and firm, the edges should break into thin flakes, and the center should feel light in the hand. Serve with cafe de olla, hot chocolate, or a glass of milk. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Store-bought puff pastry is a shortcut to a different pastry. It has butter layers and a French method. Campechanas use a Mexican panaderia method with manteca, sugar, and a palote. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •If you grew up buying campechanas made with manteca vegetal, that is real panaderia economy too. For this version, use clean manteca de cerdo because it gives a tender flake and a deeper finish. La manteca es el sabor.
• •Humidity is the enemy. If the campechanas soften the next day, warm them on a dry sheet pan at 300F for 5 to 7 minutes, then cool again. They will crisp back up, but they are best the day they are baked.
• •Do not reduce the sugar on top and then complain they are not glassy. The sugar is not decoration. It is the structure of the crust.
• •There are no chiles here because this dish does not need them. This is a 32-state cuisine. Some dishes speak through chile ancho and guajillo. This one speaks through wheat, lard, and cane sugar.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be kneaded, coated lightly with lard, wrapped, and refrigerated overnight. Let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes before rolling so it can stretch without tearing.
• •The shaped pastries can be refrigerated for up to 2 hours before baking. Sugar them right before they go into the oven.
• •Baked campechanas keep 2 days in an airtight tin with parchment between layers. Do not refrigerate them. Cold storage makes the caramel sticky.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)