Lechecilla Oaxaqueña

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan, enameled cast iron or thick stainless
• •Wooden spoon or silicone spatula with a flat edge to scrape the corners
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Whisk for the slurry and the temper
• •Glass or barro rojo bowl for cooling

Instructions

1. 1

   Infuse the milk

   Pour 3 1/2 cups of the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Reserve the remaining 1/2 cup cold for slurrying the cornstarch. Add the canela, the split vanilla bean with its scraped seeds, the citrus peel, and the salt. Set over medium-low heat and bring to a bare tremble, never a boil. You want the milk to take on the canela and the vanilla, not to scorch on the bottom. Hold it there, just below a simmer, for 10 minutes. The milk should smell like a Oaxacan dulcería at four in the afternoon.

   Use real Mexican canela, the soft pale bark that crumbles between your fingers. Cassia, the hard dark cinnamon sold in most U.S. supermarkets, will overpower the vanilla and turn the lechecilla aggressive. The nuns at Santo Domingo did not use cassia and neither will you.
2. 2

   Make the slurry

   While the milk infuses, whisk the cornstarch into the reserved 1/2 cup cold milk until perfectly smooth. No lumps. A lump in the slurry becomes a lump in the lechecilla and there is no fixing it later. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and ribbony, about two minutes by hand. Whisk the slurry into the yolks. You now have a single base, smooth, pale yellow, ready for the hot milk.

3. 3

   Temper

   Pull the canela stick, the vanilla pod, and the citrus peel out of the milk and discard them. With the milk still hot, ladle about a cup of it into the yolk mixture in a slow stream while whisking constantly. This warms the yolks without scrambling them. Add a second ladle the same way. Now pour the tempered yolk base back into the saucepan with the rest of the hot milk, whisking the whole time.

   If you dump cold yolks into hot milk, you will have sweet scrambled eggs. The temper is not optional. No me vengas con atajos.
4. 4

   Cook to silk

   Set the saucepan over medium-low heat. Switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon or silicone spatula and stir constantly, scraping the bottom and the corners of the pot. The mixture will thin first, then thicken suddenly around the 6 to 8 minute mark. Keep stirring. You are looking for a glossy custard that coats the back of the spoon and holds a clean line when you draw your finger through it. Let it bubble lazily for one more minute to cook the cornstarch fully. Raw cornstarch tastes chalky. One more minute fixes that.

   Low heat, always. High heat curdles the yolks and breaks the cornstarch. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo. This is the work.
5. 5

   Finish and cool

   Pull the pan off the heat. Stir in the Mexican vanilla extract now, off the heat, so the alcohol does not flash off and take the perfume with it. Stir in the butter if using, for shine. Pass the lechecilla through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Yes, even if it looks smooth. The sieve catches the chalaza from the yolks and any cornstarch that seized at the bottom. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface so a skin does not form. Cool on the counter for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Lechecilla used warm slumps out of an empanada. Lechecilla used cold holds its shape. Así se hace y punto.

6. 6

   Use the lechecilla

   For empanadas de lechecilla, roll out the masa thin, place a generous spoonful in the center, fold and crimp, and fry or bake. For gaznates, pipe the cold lechecilla into the fried pastry tubes only at the moment of serving, otherwise they go soft. For a wafer cone or barquillo, fill and eat immediately. The lechecilla holds in the refrigerator, well covered, for three days. Past three days, the texture starts to weep and the vanilla fades.

Chef Tips

• •Real Mexican vanilla is non-negotiable. Buy it from Papantla, Veracruz, or from a reputable Oaxacan dulcería that knows its source. The pod is the gold standard, the extract is acceptable, the imitation is a different ingredient entirely. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •If your lechecilla breaks, looking grainy or curdled, pull it off the heat immediately and pass it through a sieve while still hot. Most of the time it can be saved. If it has fully scrambled, you cooked it too hot and there is no recovery. Start again with the heat lower.
• •The señoras at the Jardín Sócrates fill the gaznates only when the customer orders. They never sit pre-filled. The pastry softens within ten minutes of contact with the lechecilla. Do the same. Pipe at the table, not in the kitchen.

Advance Preparation

• •Lechecilla can be made up to three days ahead. Cover with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface and refrigerate. Do not freeze. The cornstarch weeps when thawed and the texture turns grainy.
• •If using to fill empanadas, the lechecilla must be fully cold before filling, otherwise it will leak through the masa as it fries. Plan accordingly: cook the lechecilla in the morning, fry the empanadas in the afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 40g)