Chef Lupita
Aporreadillo Michoacano con Huevo
Michoacán's Tierra Caliente almuerzo, where salted beef is softened, pounded, fried in lard, folded with egg and chile perón salsa, then served beside morisqueta like a proper working table.
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Hotcakes de Carrito con Cajeta y Nuez
Created by
Ciudad de Mexico's Sunday morning carrito hotcakes, thick and cottony off a sidewalk plancha, drowned in cajeta de Celaya and showered with chopped pecans the moment they hit the plate.
Breakfast & Brunch
Mexican
Weeknight
Quick Meal
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
20 min cook•35 min total
Yield4 servings (about 16 small hotcakes)
These hotcakes are from Ciudad de Mexico. Not from a brunch restaurant, not from a hotel buffet. From the folding metal cart parked at the corner of a park on a Sunday morning, run by a man or a woman in a white apron with a flat plancha bolted to the top and a propane tank underneath. You order at the cart, you eat standing up or sitting on a bench, and you go home sticky.
The batter is not American pancake batter. It is leavened harder, with a full tablespoon of baking powder, so the hotcake rises into something tall and cottony that can stand up to the weight of cajeta without going limp. The cajeta has to be from Celaya, Guanajuato. That is where the dish gets its sweetness, its smokiness, its long slow goat-milk depth. Cajeta is not caramel sauce. Caramel is cooked sugar. Cajeta is goat milk and sugar reduced for hours until it turns the color of an old penny and tastes like the inside of a candy store. If your jar says dulce de leche, that is cow milk and it is not the same thing. La cajeta de Celaya es la cajeta.
The pecan is nuez pecanera, the same pecan that grows in the orchards of Coahuila and Chihuahua. Chopped rough, not ground. You want the crunch against the cotton of the hotcake and the slow pull of the cajeta. The carrito vendors will also offer you lechera, condensed milk, drizzled on top in a second sweet layer, and a spoon of strawberry jam on the side. None of this is subtle and none of it is meant to be. This is the breakfast of a city that walks to the park on Sunday morning and wants something sweet before it walks home. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
The carrito de hotcakes is a 20th-century Mexico City institution, emerging in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the broader street-food economy that fed working families and Sunday park-goers in the capital. The hotcake itself is a Mexican adaptation of the North American pancake, but the heavy leavening and the cajeta finish are distinctly Mexican choices. Cajeta, from the town of Celaya in Guanajuato, takes its name from the small wooden boxes (cajetes) it was historically sold in, and the technique of slowly reducing goat milk with sugar dates to the colonial period when the Bajio region became the center of Mexican goat farming. The pairing of carrito hotcakes with cajeta de Celaya and nuez was popularized in chilango parks like Alameda Central, Parque Mexico, and Chapultepec, where the carts still appear on weekend mornings.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 cups
granulated sugar
Quantity
3 tablespoons
baking powder
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fine salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
whole milk
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
at room temperature
large eggs
Quantity
2
at room temperature
Mexican vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
unsalted butter
Quantity
3 tablespoons, plus more for the griddle
melted and slightly cooled
cajeta de Celaya (quemada or envinada)
Quantity
1 cup
raw pecans (nuez pecanera)
Quantity
3/4 cup
coarsely chopped
sweetened condensed milk (lechera) (optional)
Quantity
for serving
strawberry jam (mermelada de fresa) (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups |
| granulated sugar | 3 tablespoons |
| baking powder | 1 tablespoon |
| fine salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| whole milkat room temperature | 1 1/2 cups |
| large eggsat room temperature | 2 |
| Mexican vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| unsalted buttermelted and slightly cooled | 3 tablespoons, plus more for the griddle |
| cajeta de Celaya (quemada or envinada) | 1 cup |
| raw pecans (nuez pecanera)coarsely chopped | 3/4 cup |
| sweetened condensed milk (lechera) (optional) | for serving |
| strawberry jam (mermelada de fresa) (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy flat comal, cast iron skillet, or flat griddle
- •Two mixing bowls
- •Whisk
- •Thin metal spatula
- •1/4 cup measure or small ladle
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dry ingredients
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Use the full tablespoon of baking powder. The hotcakes del carrito are taller and fluffier than American pancakes because the batter is leavened hard. This is what gives them that thick, cottony interior that soaks up cajeta without falling apart.
- 2
Beat the wet ingredients
In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla until the eggs are fully broken up and the mixture is pale yellow. Stream in the melted butter while whisking. Room temperature ingredients matter here. Cold milk and cold eggs will seize the butter into little lumps the moment they meet, and you will see the white specks in your batter.
If your milk and eggs came straight from the refrigerator, set them on the counter for 30 minutes before starting. The cart vendors set everything out at dawn for a reason. - 3
Combine and rest the batter
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk just until the flour disappears. There should still be a few small lumps. Do not chase them. Overmixing develops the gluten and you will end up with rubber instead of cotton. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes on the counter. The flour hydrates, the baking powder activates, and the batter thickens into something closer to a thin yogurt. This rest is the difference between a flat hotcake and one that stands tall on the comal.
- 4
Heat the comal
Heat a heavy comal, cast iron skillet, or flat griddle over medium-low. Not medium. Not medium-high. The carrito vendors cook these slow on a wide flat plancha because the batter is thick and the inside needs time to set before the outside burns. Rub a thin film of butter across the surface with a paper towel. You do not want a pool of butter, you want a sheen.
- 5
Pour the hotcakes
Use a 1/4 cup measure or a small ladle. Pour the batter from a height of about six inches so it spreads into an even round of about four inches across. Cook undisturbed for two to three minutes. Watch for the bubbles. They will start at the edges and work inward, and the surface will go from glossy wet to matte and pocked. Only when the bubbles pop and stay open is it time to flip.
- 6
Flip once and once only
Slide a thin spatula under the hotcake and flip it in one motion. Do not press on it. Pressing crushes the air the baking powder worked to build. Cook the second side for another minute and a half to two minutes. The hotcake should feel springy when you tap it. Move it to a plate and keep it warm under a clean kitchen towel while you cook the rest. Add a fresh sheen of butter to the comal between batches.
If the first hotcake browns too fast or stays gummy in the middle, your comal is too hot. Pull it off the heat for 30 seconds, lower the burner, and try again. The first hotcake is the calibration. Eat it standing at the stove and adjust. - 7
Build the carrito plate
Stack three or four hotcakes on each plate. Pour the cajeta de Celaya generously over the top so it runs down the sides and pools on the plate. Do not measure it. The carrito vendor does not measure it. Shower with chopped pecans. If you want the full street version, add a zigzag of lechera over the cajeta. A small spoon of strawberry jam on the side is how the carrito on Avenida Reforma serves it. Eat immediately, while the cajeta is still warm from the hot hotcakes underneath.
Chef Tips
- •Cajeta de Celaya comes in three styles: natural (plain), quemada (with a deeper, burnt-sugar edge), and envinada (with a splash of fortified wine). For hotcakes, I use quemada. The bitter edge cuts the sweetness of the lechera and the jam. Coronado is the easiest brand to find outside Mexico, but if you can get La Tradicional or any cajeta artesanal from Celaya, use it.
- •The pecans should be raw and chopped by hand with a knife, not pulsed in a food processor. The processor turns them into dust. You want jagged pieces big enough to feel between your teeth.
- •Do not substitute dulce de leche for cajeta. Dulce de leche is cow milk and it tastes flat next to the goat-milk depth of cajeta. If you cannot find cajeta where you live, make a smaller batch of hotcakes and order proper cajeta online. No me vengas con atajos.
Advance Preparation
- •The dry ingredients can be whisked together the night before and left covered on the counter. Add the wet ingredients in the morning.
- •Hotcakes are not a make-ahead food. They go from the comal to the plate to the table. Leftovers turn rubbery within an hour and no amount of cajeta can fix them.
- •If you must hold the cooked hotcakes for a few minutes while you finish the batch, stack them under a clean dry kitchen towel on a warm plate. Do not stack them in a covered container or the steam will collapse them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 310g)
Calories
980 calories
Total Fat
45 g
Saturated Fat
18 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
780 mg
Total Carbohydrates
124 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
70 g
Protein
21 g
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