Pan de Yema Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or strong hands and patience
• •Bench scraper for dividing the dough
• •Two heavy baking sheets lined with parchment
• •Cotton servilleta for covering the dough
• •Pastry brush for the glaze
• •Wire rack or woven petate for cooling

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Warm the milk until it feels barely warmer than your wrist. Not hot. Hot milk kills the yeast and you will get a brick instead of a bread. Stir in the yeast and one teaspoon of the sugar. Set it aside for ten minutes. It should foam and smell like fresh beer. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead and you need to start over with new yeast. No me vengas con atajos.

2. 2

   Beat the yolks

   In a wide mixing bowl, whisk the twelve yolks with the two whole eggs and the rest of the sugar until the mixture lifts in a thick yellow ribbon when you raise the whisk. This takes about five minutes by hand, two with a mixer. The color should be the deep yellow of a Yucatecan yard egg, the kind the señoras sell in the Lucas de Galvez market. That color is the bread. Pale yolks make pale pan de yema.

   Save the whites. Twelve egg whites are too valuable to throw away. They keep frozen for months and become merengues, suspiros, or the binder for a turkey relleno negro.
3. 3

   Build the dough

   Add the foaming yeast mixture, the orange-blossom water, the naranja agria zest, and the crushed anise to the beaten yolks. Whisk to combine. Sift the flour with the salt over the bowl in three additions, folding with a wooden spoon between each. The dough will be sticky, loose, almost like a thick batter. Do not add more flour. The yolks need room to do their work.

4. 4

   Knead in the fats

   Turn the shaggy dough onto a clean counter. Knead by hand or on the lowest speed of a stand mixer with a dough hook for ten minutes, until it pulls away from the counter and feels alive under your palms. Now add the softened manteca and the butter in three additions, kneading each in fully before adding the next. The dough will look broken at first. Keep working it. After fifteen minutes total it will be smooth, glossy, and the color of fresh saffron. La manteca es el sabor. Butter alone will give you brioche. Manteca is what makes it yucateco.

5. 5

   First rise, slow and cold

   Grease a large bowl with manteca. Place the dough inside, cover with a clean cotton servilleta, and refrigerate for six to eight hours, or overnight. A slow cold rise is how the panaderias in Mérida develop the flavor. The yolks need time. A fast warm rise will give you bread that smells like yeast and nothing else.

   If you are pressed for time, a warm rise of two hours will get you bread. It will not be the same bread. Plan ahead. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
6. 6

   Shape the panes

   Turn the cold dough onto a lightly floured counter. Divide into twelve equal pieces, about 90 grams each. Cup each piece under your palm and roll it against the counter in a tight circle until you feel the surface tighten and pull. The classic Mérida shape is round and slightly domed, like a small loaf the size of a softball. Some panaderias pinch a small knot of dough on top, the moñito, as a signature. Do as your hands tell you.

7. 7

   Second rise

   Place the shaped panes on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced four fingers apart. They will grow. Cover loosely with the cotton servilleta and let them rise in a warm corner of the kitchen for an hour and a half to two hours. They are ready when they look puffed and a gentle press of one finger leaves an indent that fills back slowly. Underproofed pan de yema bakes up dense and sad. Take your time.

8. 8

   Glaze and bake

   Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). Brush the tops of the panes with the yolk-milk glaze, gentle so you do not deflate them. Sprinkle a few grains of sugar over each one if you want the panadería finish. Bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes, rotating the tray halfway. They are done when the tops are a deep amber bronze, the bottoms sound hollow when tapped, and the kitchen smells like a Mérida bakery at six in the morning.

9. 9

   Cool on a petate

   Slide the panes onto a woven mat or a wire rack and let them cool for at least thirty minutes before you cut into one. Pan de yema steams from the inside as it cools and that moisture is what keeps the crumb tender. If you tear into one hot, you will release the steam and the bread will dry out faster. Wait. Then serve with hot chocolate, café de olla, or atole. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The yolks are non-negotiable. Twelve. Not eight, not ten. The whole identity of the bread is in that number. If twelve yolks feels like too much, you are making the wrong bread. Make a regular pan dulce instead.
• •Naranja agria is the proper citrus for Yucatán. If you cannot find it, mix the zest of one Persian lime with one navel orange. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it is the closest the rest of Mexico can come.
• •Manteca de cerdo from a butcher is far better than the shelf-stable bricks at the supermarket. The supermarket lard is hydrogenated and tastes like nothing. Ask your carnicero for fresh-rendered manteca, or render your own from pork fatback. It freezes well.
• •Orange-blossom water is sold cheaply at any Middle Eastern market and at most Yucatecan groceries. Do not use orange extract. The two are not the same and the substitution tastes like cleaning product.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough must rest in the refrigerator for at least six hours and up to eighteen. This is not optional. The slow cold rise is what builds the flavor and the soft crumb.
• •Baked pan de yema keeps two days at room temperature wrapped in a clean cotton servilleta inside a paper bag. Past that, the manteca starts to firm up and the bread loses its tender bite. Refresh with thirty seconds on a warm comal.
• •The shaped panes, after the first rise, can be frozen on the tray before the second rise. Wrap and freeze for up to one month, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator and proceed with the second rise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)