Pan Francés Yucateco con Chocolate

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide shallow bowl for the custard
• •Heavy 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet or comal
• •Flat metal spatula
• •Medium saucepan for the chocolate
• •Molinillo (traditional wooden chocolate whisk), or a regular whisk
• •Tall jarro de barro (clay pitcher) for serving the chocolate

Instructions

1. 1

   Start with day-old pan francés

   Use day-old pan francés, the small crusty Yucatecan loaves you find at any panaderia in Merida stacked in baskets near the door. Fresh bread will fall apart in the custard. The crumb needs to be dry enough to drink the egg without surrendering its structure. If your loaf is fresh, slice it on the bias and leave the pieces uncovered on a sheet pan for two hours, or dry them briefly in a 250F oven. Asi se hace y punto.

   If you cannot find pan francés, a sturdy bolillo or French baguette will work. Telera will not. Telera is too soft and the crumb collapses.
2. 2

   Build the custard

   In a wide shallow bowl, whisk the eggs until the yolks and whites are completely combined. Add the whole milk, the condensed milk, the vanilla, the salt, and the orange zest. Whisk again. Drop in the broken cinnamon stick and let the custard rest for ten minutes. The canela needs time to give its flavor to the milk. Real Ceylon cinnamon is what you want, the soft pale bark that breaks apart in your fingers, not the hard red cassia that most American stores sell as cinnamon. The Yucatecan pantry runs on canela de Ceylon.

3. 3

   Start the chocolate

   While the custard rests, build the chocolate. In a medium saucepan, heat the three cups of whole milk with the cinnamon stick and a pinch of salt over medium-low heat. When the milk is hot but not boiling, drop in the chocolate tablet broken into chunks. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon as it melts. Once the chocolate has dissolved, use a molinillo if you have one, the wooden whisk Mexicans have used for chocolate since before the conquest, and roll it between your palms to froth the surface. No molinillo, no problem. A regular whisk works. The chocolate should be thick enough to coat the spoon but still pourable. Keep it warm but not simmering. Boiling Mexican chocolate breaks the texture.

4. 4

   Soak the bread

   Heat a large skillet or cast iron comal over medium heat. While it heats, soak the bread slices in the custard. Press each piece gently and let it drink for about 30 seconds per side. You want the slice saturated through the crumb but still holding its shape when you lift it. A bread that falls apart in the bowl was either too fresh or soaked too long.

   Lift each slice with a flat spatula, not your fingers. The custard-soaked crumb tears under fingertip pressure.
5. 5

   Fry in butter and lard

   Add two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of manteca de cerdo to the hot skillet. The lard is not optional. Butter alone burns and tastes flat. Lard alone tastes savory in a dish that wants to be sweet. Together they give you the gold color and the round flavor the Yucatecan comedores get. Lay in the soaked slices without crowding, three or four at a time. Fry for two to three minutes per side until each face is deep golden brown and crisp at the edges. The kitchen will smell like warm butter and cinnamon. Wipe the skillet and add fresh butter and lard between batches as needed.

6. 6

   Coat in sugar and cinnamon

   While the slices fry, combine the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon on a wide plate. As each piece comes out of the skillet, press both sides into the cinnamon sugar. The residual butter on the surface will hold the coating. Stack the finished pieces on a serving platter, slightly overlapping, as you go.

7. 7

   Drown in chocolate at the table

   Bring the platter of pan francés to the table with the warm chocolate in a tall jarro de barro alongside, the cinnamon stick still floating in it. Each diner gets two or three slices on a deep plate and pours the chocolate over them at the table. The bread drinks the chocolate. Eat with a spoon, not a fork. This is not a delicate dish. This is the Sunday almuerzo at a Merida comedor, generous and unceremonious. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Use Mexican chocolate de mesa, the round tablets sold under brands like Ibarra, Abuelita, or, if you can find it, the artisanal Oaxacan tablets from Mayordomo or La Soledad. American baking chocolate is not a substitute. It has no cinnamon, no almond, no granulated sugar in the texture, none of the things that make Mexican drinking chocolate what it is.
• •Day-old bread is not a compromise. It is the recipe. Fresh pan francés collapses in the custard. If your loaf is too fresh, dry the slices on a sheet pan at 250F for ten minutes and let them cool before soaking.
• •Butter and lard together. No me vengas con atajos. Replacing the manteca with more butter changes the flavor and the color. The little bit of lard rounds out the frying fat and is how the comedores in Merida do it.
• •If you can find a molinillo at a Mexican market, buy one. Rolling it between your palms in the warm chocolate gives you the froth the Mayas have been making for two thousand years. A whisk works. A molinillo is better.

Advance Preparation

• •Slice the pan francés and leave it uncovered overnight if your loaf is fresh. The drier the crumb, the better it drinks the custard without falling apart.
• •The custard can be whisked together up to one hour ahead and refrigerated, but bring it back to room temperature before soaking the bread. Cold custard chills the skillet and the pan francés turns greasy instead of crisp.
• •The chocolate is best made just before serving and kept warm over the lowest heat. Reheated Mexican chocolate from the refrigerator separates and loses its froth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)