Pan de Pulque de Tlaxcala

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large clay, glass, or stainless bowl for the pulque sponge
• •Wooden kneading board and bench scraper
• •Wood-fired horno de leña or home oven with baking stone
• •Pastry brush for egg wash
• •Woven palm basket and cotton servilleta for holding the cooled bread

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the pulque

   Stir the pulque well so the asiento, the xaxtle at the bottom, comes back into the drink. In a clay, glass, or stainless bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups pulque with 2 cups bread flour and 2 tablespoons grated piloncillo. Cover with a cloth and let it stand 8 to 12 hours in a warm place, about 70F to 78F. The sponge should rise, bubble at the edges, and smell sour-sweet, like maguey and wet wheat.

   Canned or pasteurized pulque will not leaven this bread. If the sponge does nothing after 12 hours, the pulque is dead. Start again with live pulque. Do not hide bad pulque with yeast and call it the same bread.
2. 2

   Make piloncillo syrup

   Put the 7 ounces grated piloncillo, 1/2 cup water, canela, and ground anise in a small pot. Simmer just until the piloncillo dissolves and the syrup looks dark and glossy, 4 to 5 minutes. Let it cool completely. Hot syrup kills the ferment. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl, combine the remaining 5 1/2 cups bread flour and the salt. Add the pulque sponge, cooled piloncillo syrup, eggs, and 1/2 cup fresh pulque. Mix until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and rest 20 minutes. The wheat needs time to drink the pulque before you judge the texture.

4. 4

   Knead with lard

   Work in the softened manteca de cerdo a spoonful at a time. Knead by hand on a lightly floured wooden board for 12 to 15 minutes, or use a stand mixer on low for 8 to 10 minutes. The dough should become smooth, elastic, and still a little tacky. If it feels tight or dry, add pulque 1 tablespoon at a time. La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable shortening gives you a different bread.

   This is an enriched pulque dough, not a lean bolillo dough. It will feel heavier. Do not drown it in flour just because it touches your fingers.
5. 5

   Ferment slowly

   Grease a clean bowl with a little manteca. Set the dough inside, cover, and let it rise 4 to 6 hours in a warm place. Fold it once after 2 hours by lifting each side toward the center. The dough may not double like commercial yeast dough. Look for a swollen surface, small bubbles along the sides, and a softer feel under your hand. Pulque works on its own clock.

6. 6

   Shape the braids

   Turn the dough onto the board and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Divide each piece into 3 ropes, about 16 inches long. Braid each loaf firmly, then tuck the ends underneath. Set the loaves on greased baking sheets, or on clean white zapote leaves if you have them. The braid is not decoration only. It helps the loaf hold its shape while the slow ferment finishes its work.

7. 7

   Proof and seed

   Cover the shaped loaves and let them proof 1 1/2 to 3 hours, until they look puffy and a fingertip pressed into the dough leaves a slow dent. Brush with the egg yolk mixed with pulque. Scatter the sesame seeds over the top so they cling to the egg wash. This is the Totolac look: dark crust, sesame, generous loaf.

8. 8

   Prepare the horno

   For a wood-fired horno de leña, burn hardwood until the fire has settled into white ash, sweep the floor clean, and bake when the floor is around 390F to 410F. A pinch of flour should brown, not blacken, in about 10 seconds. For a home oven, preheat a baking stone at 425F for 45 minutes, then lower to 375F when the bread goes in.

   If the horno is too hot, the sesame burns before the crumb sets. If it is too cool, the bread dries out before it browns. The oven teaches you. Pay attention.
9. 9

   Bake dark

   Bake the loaves 35 to 45 minutes, rotating once if your oven browns unevenly. The crust should be dark chestnut, the sesame golden, and the bottom should sound hollow when tapped. If you use a thermometer, the center should read 195F to 200F. Do not pull it pale. Pan de pulque should look like it has met a serious horno.

10. 10

    Cool and serve

    Cool the bread at least 1 hour before slicing. Cut too soon and the crumb turns gummy. Wrap the loaves in white zapote leaves or a clean cotton servilleta once they are fully cool. Serve thick slices with café de olla, atole, frijoles, queso fresco, or a plate of mole prieto. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy fresh pulque from a pulqueria or a tlachiquero who can tell you when it was drawn. Good pulque smells sour, clean, and faintly vegetal. If it smells rotten or dirty, do not put it in bread.
• •The asiento or xaxtle matters. That sediment carries the active life of the pulque. Stir it in before measuring. Straining it out is like throwing away your leaven.
• •If you cannot get active pulque, the honest compromise is 100 grams of mature wheat sourdough starter plus canned pulque as part of the liquid. It will taste related, but it is not the Totolac method. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use strong bread flour if you are outside Tlaxcala. Older bakers looked for hard wheat because it absorbs more liquid and gives the loaf structure. Weak flour makes the braid spread.
• •There are no chiles in this bread. Not everything in Mexico needs chile to prove where it comes from. This is a 32-state cuisine, and Tlaxcala speaks here through maguey, wheat, piloncillo, sesame, and horno.
• •Do not replace manteca de cerdo with vegetable shortening because a package told you it is cleaner. Some bakeries use shortening because it is cheap and stable. That does not make it better.

Advance Preparation

• •Start the pulque sponge the night before you want to bake. This bread is a two-day rhythm. Accept it.
• •The piloncillo syrup can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before mixing it into the dough.
• •Baked loaves keep 3 days wrapped in white zapote leaves or a clean cotton servilleta. The second day is excellent with atole or coffee.
• •Slices freeze well for 1 month. Warm them in a 325F oven until the crust firms again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)