Culinary Explorer
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Pastel de Elote de Tepoztlan
Created by Chef Lupita
Morelos gives you pastel de elote from Tepoztlan, a dense fresh-corn cake baked until golden at the edges and custardy in the center. Not American cornbread. Learn the difference.
Morelos, the central highlands around Tepoztlan, is where this pastel de elote belongs. You see it in market stalls near the plaza, cut into thick squares, golden on top, soft inside, made from fresh tender corn while the kernels still have milk in them.
This is not cornbread. Do not bring me cornmeal and call it the same thing. Pastel de elote uses fresh elote tierno scraped from the cob, blended just enough to break the kernels, then held together with eggs, butter, milk, and a little queso fresco. The corn is the structure. The corn is the flavor. If the ears are old and starchy, make esquites instead and wait for better corn.
I learned this version from a woman in the Tepoztlan market who sold it wrapped in paper, still warm from a dented aluminum pan. She told me, 'No lo hagas seco.' Don't make it dry. That is the whole lesson. Bake it until the edges brown and the center trembles slightly. Let it rest. Cut it when it has settled. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Ingredients
fresh tender white corn
Quantity
6 large ears, about 5 cups kernels
husked, kernels cut from the cob
large eggs
Quantity
4
sweetened condensed milk
Quantity
1 cup
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh tender white cornhusked, kernels cut from the cob | 6 large ears, about 5 cups kernels |
| large eggs | 4 |
| sweetened condensed milk | 1 cup |
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