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Tlacolula's wheat bread leavened with pulque, the fermented agave sap that pre-dates yeast in Mexico. Slow-rising, slightly sour, with the depth that only wild fermentation gives.
This bread is from Tlacolula de Matamoros, in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca. Sunday is market day there, the biggest tianguis in the central valleys, and the panaderias along the streets that lead to the mercado have been pulling pan de pulque from wood-fired clay ovens since before anyone alive can remember.
The leavener is pulque. Not yeast. Pulque, the milky fermented sap of the maguey, the drink the Mexica considered sacred long before the Spanish brought wheat or commercial yeast to this country. When the wheat arrived, the bakers of the central altiplano did what cooks always do: they used what they had. They fermented their wheat dough with the same pulque they were drinking. The result is a bread with a slow, slightly sour pull, a tender crumb the color of pale straw, and a depth of flavor that no packet of yeast will ever produce. Pulque is not a substitute for yeast. Pulque is the leavener. It is older.
My mother did not bake pan de pulque. She was from Jalisco and her bread tradition was different. But I spent three Sundays in Tlacolula with the panadera at Mercado Alarii in Zaachila and another with the Sanchez family in Miahuatlan, and I filled half a notebook learning how they handle a pulque dough. The lessons are these: the pulque must be fresh and active, not the bottled curado you find at a tourist shop. The ferment is slow. You do not rush a pulque dough. The manteca de cerdo gives the crumb its tenderness. The piloncillo balances the sour. And the bread is a Sunday bread, eaten with chocolate de agua frothed with a molinillo, torn by hand, never sliced. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and in Oaxaca, knowing how to bake with pulque is knowing how to keep something ancient alive.
Pulque, the fermented sap of the maguey (Agave salmiana and Agave atrovirens), was a sacred drink among the pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico, restricted in everyday consumption but central to religious and agricultural ceremony. When wheat arrived with the Spanish in the 16th century and bread became part of the Novohispano diet, indigenous and mestizo bakers in the wheat-and-maguey-growing regions, particularly in the highlands of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Hidalgo, and the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca, adapted the existing pulque ferment as a leavener for wheat dough, predating the standardization of commercial baker's yeast in Mexico by nearly four centuries. The pan de pulque tradition survives most strongly in small market towns like Tlacolula, Zaachila, Mitla, and Miahuatlan, where the Sunday tianguis still anchors the demand for a bread that takes a full day to make properly.
Quantity
2 cups
Quantity
2 tablespoons
grated
Quantity
5 1/2 cups
plus more for the work surface
Quantity
1/2 cup
softened
Quantity
1/2 cup
grated
Quantity
3
at room temperature
Quantity
1
at room temperature
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for finishing
Quantity
1
for the wash
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pulque natural (unflavored, fresh, active) | 2 cups |
| piloncillo (for the starter)grated | 2 tablespoons |
| harina de trigo (all-purpose wheat flour)plus more for the work surface | 5 1/2 cups |
| manteca de cerdosoftened | 1/2 cup |
| piloncillo (for the dough)grated | 1/2 cup |
| large egg yolksat room temperature | 3 |
| whole large eggat room temperature | 1 |
| fine sea salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| canela molida (ground Mexican cinnamon) | 1 teaspoon |
| ajonjolí (sesame seeds)for finishing | 1 tablespoon |
| egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon milkfor the wash | 1 |
Pour the pulque into a wide ceramic or glass bowl. Stir in the 2 tablespoons of grated piloncillo. The pulque should be fresh, slightly viscous, with the smell of yeast and wet earth. If it smells sour like vinegar or has gone watery, it is dead and will not leaven anything. Cover the bowl with a clean cotton cloth and leave it on the counter for 1 hour. You should see small bubbles rising from the bottom and a faint foam at the surface. That is the wild yeast and bacteria of the pulque waking up. This is your leavener. Pulque is not a substitute for yeast. It is the leavener. It is older than yeast in this country.
In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the flour with the bubbling pulque mixture. The result will look like a thick, shaggy paste. Cover with the cotton cloth and leave in a warm corner of the kitchen for 4 to 6 hours, until the surface is domed, full of holes, and smells unmistakably of fermentation. This is your masa madre, the wild starter that will lift the bread. Tlacolula bakers have been doing this for generations. No commercial yeast has ever crossed the threshold of a real pan de pulque.
Scrape the masa madre into a wide wooden artesa or your largest mixing bowl. Add the remaining 4 cups of flour, the 1/2 cup of grated piloncillo, the salt, the canela, the egg yolks, and the whole egg. Work the manteca in last, pressing it into the dough with your hands until it disappears. La manteca es el sabor and in this bread it is also what gives the crumb its tender, almost cake-like pull. Mix until a rough dough forms.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not rush this. The dough will start sticky and ragged. As you work it, the gluten develops and the dough becomes smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky to the touch. Push with the heel of your hand, fold, turn, repeat. The senoras of Tlacolula knead on long wooden artesas with their whole upper body. There is a rhythm to it. Find it.
Place the kneaded dough in a clean bowl rubbed with a thin film of manteca. Cover with the cotton cloth. Leave in a warm corner of the kitchen for 4 to 6 hours, until doubled in size. Pulque is slower than commercial yeast. No me vengas con atajos. If your kitchen is cold, this rise can take 8 hours. Do not turn on the oven to speed it up. The slow ferment is where the slight sourness, the depth, the ancestral character comes from.
Punch the dough down gently. Turn it out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces for small panes, or 2 large pieces for round loaves. Shape each piece into a tight round by cupping your hand over it and rolling against the work surface until the surface is smooth and the seam closes underneath. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment, leaving room between each one. The Tlacolula form is a slightly flattened round with a cross or a sun pressed into the top with a knife.
Cover the shaped panes loosely with the cotton cloth. Leave to rise for 2 to 3 hours, until visibly puffed and soft to the touch. Press a finger gently into the side. The dough should spring back slowly, leaving a faint indent. If it springs back fast, give it more time. If the indent stays and does not recover, it has overproofed, bake immediately.
Heat the oven to 375F (190C). With a sharp knife or a razor, score a shallow cross or sun pattern on the top of each pan. Brush each one with the egg yolk and milk wash. Scatter ajonjolí across the tops, pressing lightly so the seeds adhere. Bake for 28 to 35 minutes for small panes, or 40 to 45 for the large rounds, until the tops are deep amber, the bottoms sound hollow when tapped, and the kitchen smells like a Tlacolula panaderia at six in the morning. Cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before tearing into one. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 128g)
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