Marquetas Acambarenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Wide mixing bowl
• •Bench knife for squaring the dough
• •Charola lechera or heavy sheet pan
• •Baking stone or heavy preheated sheet pan
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Refresh the pata

   The night before baking, mix the active masa madre, 120 grams bread flour, and 80 grams water into a stiff dough. Cover it and leave it at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours, until domed, lightly cracked on top, and sweet-tangy when you smell it. If it smells sharply acidic or has collapsed into a paste, refresh it again before you bake. The pata is the leaven. Así se hace y punto.

2. 2

   Make piloncillo syrup

   Combine the piloncillo and 150 grams water in a small saucepan. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring until the piloncillo dissolves completely. Let the syrup cool until it is just warm to the touch. Hot syrup will soften the lard too much and make the dough greasy before the flour can take it in.

3. 3

   Rub in the lard

   In a wide bowl, mix the 500 grams flour, salt, canela, and crushed anise seed. Add the manteca de cerdo and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand with a few small pebbles. This is what gives the marqueta its crumbly bite. La manteca es el sabor.

4. 4

   Build the dough

   Tear the refreshed pata into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Pour in the cooled piloncillo syrup. Mix with your hand until the dough comes together, then knead by pressing and folding for 8 to 10 minutes. It will be firm and slightly rough, not soft like pan dulce dough. If dry flour remains at the bottom of the bowl, add water one teaspoon at a time. Do not flood it. This bread keeps because it is low in moisture.

5. 5

   Rest the dough

   Cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for 2 1/2 to 4 hours, depending on the strength of your pata and the warmth of the kitchen. It should puff by about half, not double. People chase fluffy bread because they don't understand this one. A marqueta should be dense enough to break into crumbs under your fingers.

6. 6

   Shape the marquetas

   Dust the counter lightly with flour. Divide the dough into 18 pieces, about 55 to 60 grams each. Press each piece into a squat rectangle, roughly 3 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. Flatten the top with your palm and square the sides with a bench knife. Leave the surface a little irregular. Machine-perfect bread has no memory.

   If the dough resists shaping, cover it for 10 minutes and let the gluten relax. Forcing it will tear the surface and make the edges bake unevenly.
7. 7

   Proof the pieces

   Set the marquetas on a flour-dusted sheet pan or charola lechera, leaving space between them. Cover with a clean cotton cloth and let them rest for 60 to 90 minutes. They should feel lighter when lifted but still hold their brick shape. If they spread, your dough was too wet. Remember that for next time. Recetas probadas y garantizadas means you learn from the dough in front of you.

8. 8

   Bake until firm

   Heat the oven to 400F with a baking stone or heavy sheet pan inside. Slide the marquetas onto the hot surface or place the charola on the middle rack. Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, until the tops are dry and pale gold, the edges are deeper brown, and the bottoms sound firm when tapped. In a horno de bóveda, the live heat gives darker edges. At home, the hot stone helps.

9. 9

   Dry the crumb

   Lower the oven to 250F and return the marquetas for 15 to 20 minutes more. This final drying is not decoration. It is why the bread keeps. Cool completely on a rack before storing. Break one open only after it cools and look at the crumb: tight, sandy, lightly sweet from piloncillo, with the quiet sourness of the pata underneath.

Chef Tips

• •If you live near a Mexican panadería that keeps sourdough for bolillo or pan de agua, ask for a piece of their masa madre. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. If all you have is baking powder, make another bread. The marqueta's pata is not optional.
• •Use clean, fresh manteca de cerdo, not hydrogenated shortening. Shortening makes a flat-tasting bread. Manteca gives the crumb its sandy break and its keeping power.
• •This is not a chile bread and it does not need salsa. Not all Mexican food announces itself with chile. Here the flavor is wheat, piloncillo, lard, canela, and fermentation.
• •Do not compare the texture to pan grande de Acámbaro. Pan grande is softer and more generous at the table. Marqueta is road bread, dense by design.
• •If the marquetas soften after a humid day, refresh them in a 300F oven for 8 to 10 minutes and cool them again before storing.

Advance Preparation

• •Refresh the pata the night before baking. It should be lively before it touches the final dough.
• •The baked marquetas keep for 5 to 7 days wrapped in a clean cotton cloth and stored in a bread box or clay container with a loose lid.
• •Marquetas freeze well for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature, then refresh in a 300F oven until the edges feel firm again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 marqueta (about 55g)