Pan de Calabaza Yucateco con Piloncillo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •9-by-5-inch loaf pan
• •Heavy 3-quart pot for cooking the calabaza
• •High-powered blender or immersion blender
• •Wide rubber spatula
• •Wooden skewer for testing doneness
• •Wire rack or small palm petate for cooling

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the calabaza in piloncillo

   Place the calabaza chunks in a heavy pot with the 8 ounces of chopped piloncillo, the canela stick, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel, and water. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Cover partially and cook for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the calabaza is fork-tender and the liquid has reduced into a dark, sticky syrup that clings to the chunks. This step is the whole recipe. You are not boiling pumpkin in water. You are confiting it in spiced piloncillo until the calabaza tastes like the candied calabaza en tacha that the women of Yucatan make for Hanal Pixan. Skip this and you have an American pumpkin bread. So no me vengas con atajos.

   If you cannot find calabaza melaza, the next best thing is calabaza de Castilla. American sugar pumpkin is a compromise. Canned pumpkin puree is not. The flesh has to absorb the piloncillo and the spices, and a can will not let it.
2. 2

   Cool and pure the calabaza

   Fish out the canela stick, the cloves, the allspice berries, and the orange peel. Let the calabaza cool in the syrup for 20 minutes, no less. Hot puree breaks the eggs when you add it to the batter. Transfer everything, calabaza and remaining syrup, to a blender or a deep bowl with an immersion blender. Pure until completely smooth. You should have about 2 cups of dark amber puree. If you have more, save it for the next loaf or stir it into atole.

3. 3

   Prepare the pan and oven

   Heat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a thin layer of manteca and line the bottom with a strip of parchment that hangs over the long sides. The manteca on the walls of the pan gives the crust the same toasted edge you get from a panaderia tray that has been used for forty years. La manteca es el sabor, even on the pan.

4. 4

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground canela, ground allspice, ground clove, and salt. Whisk for a full thirty seconds. The leaveners need to be distributed evenly or you will get pale streaks and dense pockets in the loaf.

5. 5

   Build the wet mixture

   In a large bowl, whisk the melted manteca with the 2 ounces of chopped piloncillo until the piloncillo has mostly dissolved into the warm fat. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each. Pour in the calabaza pure, the milk, and the vanilla. Whisk until uniform and the color is a deep, even orange-brown.

   If your manteca is too hot, it will cook the eggs into yellow threads. Touch the bowl with the back of your hand. If it is warm, not hot, you are ready. If it is hot, wait five more minutes.
6. 6

   Fold the batter together

   Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two additions. Fold with a wide rubber spatula until you no longer see flour streaks, then stop. Twenty strokes, maybe fewer. Overmixing develops the gluten and gives you a tough, rubbery loaf. Mexican quick breads are tender, not chewy. Asi se hace y punto.

7. 7

   Top with pepitas and piloncillo

   Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top with the back of the spatula. Scatter the pepitas evenly across the surface, pressing them in just enough that they stick. Sprinkle the grated piloncillo over the pepitas. As the loaf bakes, the piloncillo melts down between the seeds and forms a dark, sticky crust that crackles under your knife. This is the Yucatecan finish.

8. 8

   Bake until set

   Bake on the center rack for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. The top should be deep amber, almost mahogany where the piloncillo caramelized, the pepitas toasted to a golden brown, and a wooden skewer inserted into the center should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. If the top is browning too fast at the 45-minute mark, tent loosely with foil. Every oven lies about its temperature. Trust the skewer, not the clock.

9. 9

   Cool on the petate

   Let the loaf rest in the pan for 15 minutes. Lift it out using the parchment overhang and set it on a wire rack, or, if you have one, on a small woven palm petate the way the panaderias cool their loaves in Merida. Wait at least an hour before slicing. Hot quick bread crumbles under the knife and you cannot read the texture until it has set. Serve thick slices with cafe de olla or a glass of cold milk. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Calabaza melaza is sold in chunks at any Yucatecan mercado and at most Mexican markets in the United States. If you cannot find it, calabaza de Castilla is the closest substitute. Sugar pumpkin from a North American supermarket is a compromise, not an upgrade. Canned pumpkin will not work for this recipe because the flesh has to absorb the piloncillo syrup, and a pre-cooked puree cannot do that.
• •Piloncillo cones vary in size. The standard small cone is about 8 ounces. The large cone is closer to 16. Weigh it. Do not guess. And do not substitute brown sugar. Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses sprayed on it. Piloncillo is the whole cane reduced. The flavor is deeper and slightly smoky, and that smokiness is what makes this loaf taste Yucateco.
• •Use canela de Ceylan, the soft thin bark. The hard cassia bark sold as cinnamon in most American supermarkets is a different spice with a harsher, more aggressive flavor that bullies the other ingredients. If you can only find cassia, use half the amount called for and accept that the loaf will not taste exactly right.
• •Pimienta gorda is allspice, the dried berry of the Pimenta dioica tree native to Tabasco and Veracruz. It is not a blend of spices, despite what the English name suggests. One berry, one flavor, native to the Gulf coast. If you have ever wondered why Yucatecan food tastes different from food from the rest of Mexico, pimienta gorda is one of the reasons.

Advance Preparation

• •The cooked calabaza puree can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated in a sealed container. Bring it to room temperature before folding it into the batter.
• •The baked loaf keeps wrapped in cotton cloth at room temperature for three days. The flavor deepens on the second day as the piloncillo and spices marry into the crumb.
• •The loaf freezes well for up to two months, wrapped tightly in plastic and then in foil. Thaw at room temperature, never in the microwave, which turns the crust gummy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 130g)