Chef Lupita
Nayarit Corn Biscuits (Bizcochitos de Maíz)
Nayarit's bizcochitos de maíz are tender little corn biscuits sweetened with piloncillo, scented with canela, and baked until the edges turn pale gold and the crumb stays tight.
Culinary Explorer
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Colima Festival Empanadas (Empanadas de San Francisco)
Created by
Colima's October festival empanadas, filled with coconut or thick milk cream, baked until pale gold, then chapeadas with sugar for the feast of San Francisco de Asis.
Pastries & Cookies
Mexican
Celebration
Holiday
Special Occasion
1 hr 15 min
Active Time
45 min cook•2 hr total
Yield18 empanadas
Colima, on the small Pacific state between Jalisco and Michoacan, owns these empanadas for October 4, the feast of San Francisco de Asis. They belong to the festival table, to neighborhood ovens, to women making trays before the house fills with family. This is not food from a single Mexico. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The filling tells you where you are. Coconut makes sense in Colima, where the coast and the hot lowlands have always shaped the sweet kitchen. The cream filling, thickened with egg yolks and milk, carries the convent hand of the colonial period. The dough is wheat flour with manteca de cerdo. Not butter. Not oil. La manteca es el sabor, and in a baked empanada it gives the pastry that tender bite that breaks clean under your teeth.
I learned a version of these from a woman near the mercado in Colima city who made coconut ones in the morning and cream ones after lunch because her grandchildren argued over which was correct. Both are correct when the dough is right, the filling is cool, and the sugar chapeado goes on while the empanadas are still warm. No me vengas con atajos. The work is the point.
My mother's notebook had many Jalisciense sweets, but next to one empanada recipe she wrote, "ask Colima, they know." She was right. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Colima was incorporated into Spanish colonial routes in the 16th century, and Franciscan religious life helped fix October 4, the feast of San Francisco de Asis, as a local calendar date for sweets and public celebration. Wheat flour, sugar, cinnamon, dairy custards, and baked empanada forms arrived through colonial kitchens, while coconut became a natural regional filling because Colima's Pacific coast and lowland agriculture made it common in local sweets. The practice of chapeado, brushing baked pastries with syrup and sugar, belongs to that old Mexican festival logic: make something durable, generous, and sweet enough to sit on the table while people come and go.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose wheat flour
Quantity
4 cups
plus more for rolling
granulated sugar
Quantity
1/2 cup
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
baking powder
Quantity
1 teaspoon
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
1 cup
cool but pliable
large eggs
Quantity
2
whole milk
Quantity
1/2 cup
plus more as needed
vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fresh grated coconut
Quantity
2 cups
whole milk
Quantity
1 cup
granulated sugar
Quantity
3/4 cup
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 pinch
vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
whole milk, for cream filling
Quantity
2 cups
granulated sugar, for cream filling
Quantity
1/2 cup
large egg yolks
Quantity
4
cornstarch
Quantity
3 tablespoons
cinnamon stick, for cream filling
Quantity
1
vanilla extract, for cream filling
Quantity
1 teaspoon
egg wash
Quantity
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
granulated sugar, for chapeado syrup
Quantity
1/2 cup
water, for chapeado syrup
Quantity
1/4 cup
granulated sugar, for coating
Quantity
1/2 cup
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose wheat flourplus more for rolling | 4 cups |
| granulated sugar | 1/2 cup |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon |
| baking powder | 1 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard)cool but pliable | 1 cup |
| large eggs | 2 |
| whole milkplus more as needed | 1/2 cup |
| vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh grated coconut | 2 cups |
| whole milk | 1 cup |
| granulated sugar | 3/4 cup |
| cinnamon stick | 1 |
| fine sea salt | 1 pinch |
| vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| whole milk, for cream filling | 2 cups |
| granulated sugar, for cream filling | 1/2 cup |
| large egg yolks | 4 |
| cornstarch | 3 tablespoons |
| cinnamon stick, for cream filling | 1 |
| vanilla extract, for cream filling | 1 teaspoon |
| egg wash | 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk |
| granulated sugar, for chapeado syrup | 1/2 cup |
| water, for chapeado syrup | 1/4 cup |
| granulated sugar, for coating | 1/2 cup |
Equipment Needed
- •Rolling pin
- •5-inch round cutter or small plate for tracing
- •Heavy saucepan for fillings
- •Baking sheets
- •Pastry brush
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough
Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a wide bowl. Rub in the manteca de cerdo with your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse sand with a few pea-sized pieces of fat. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not knead it like bread. These are festival empanadas, not bolillos.
- 2
Rest the masa
Gather the dough into a disk, wrap it, and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes. The flour needs time to hydrate and the lard needs to firm slightly. If you roll it immediately, it will fight you and crack at the edges.
- 3
Cook coconut filling
Combine the grated coconut, milk, sugar, cinnamon stick, and salt in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the coconut absorbs the milk and the mixture thickens enough to hold its shape, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon and stir in the vanilla. Cool completely before filling. Warm filling melts the lard in the dough and gives you a leaking empanada.
- 4
Cook cream filling
For the cream version, heat 1 1/2 cups milk with the sugar and cinnamon stick until hot. Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the yolks, then return everything to the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove the cinnamon and stir in the vanilla. Cool completely.
Choose coconut or cream, or make half of each. Do not overfill. A festival table wants abundance, but an empanada with filling bursting out looks careless. - 5
Roll and cut
Heat the oven to 375F. Roll the rested dough on a lightly floured table to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut 5-inch rounds. Gather scraps once and reroll. After that, stop. Overworked dough bakes tough, and the senora who taught you would see it before you said a word.
- 6
Fill and seal
Place 1 rounded tablespoon of coconut or cream filling in the center of each round. Fold into a half-moon and press the edges firmly. Seal with a fork or pinch a small repulgue along the edge. Set the empanadas on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush lightly with egg wash.
- 7
Bake until golden
Bake for 22 to 26 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the empanadas are pale gold with deeper color along the sealed edge. They should look baked, not browned like fried turnovers. Colima's version is gentle. Not all Mexican food announces itself with chile. Some dishes speak in coconut, wheat, lard, and sugar.
- 8
Chapea with sugar
While the empanadas bake, simmer 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water for 3 minutes to make a light syrup. Brush the warm empanadas with the syrup, then dust or roll them lightly in granulated sugar. That is the chapeado, the sugar coat that marks the San Francisco table. Let them cool until the filling settles before serving. Asi se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh grated coconut if you can. Bagged sweetened coconut is already sugared and too wet. If that is all you can find, reduce the sugar in the coconut filling by half and understand the compromise.
- •The filling must be cold before it touches the dough. Warm coconut or cream melts the lard and makes the seam open in the oven. That is not bad luck. That is bad timing.
- •These empanadas are baked, not fried. Do not turn them into turnovers from somewhere else. Colima's San Francisco empanada should be tender, pale gold, and sugar-chapeada.
- •There are no chiles here because the dish does not need them. Mexican food is not a single flavor profile. This is a 32-state cuisine, and Colima's festival sweet kitchen has its own authority.
Advance Preparation
- •Both fillings can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring them just to cool room temperature before filling so they spread easily but do not warm the dough.
- •The dough can rest in the refrigerator overnight. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before rolling.
- •Baked empanadas keep well for two days in a covered tin. Do not refrigerate them after baking or the pastry will toughen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 125g)
Calories
465 calories
Total Fat
23 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
105 mg
Sodium
210 mg
Total Carbohydrates
58 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
34 g
Protein
7 g
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