Patas Yucatecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Kitchen scale for portioning the dough
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Cotton servilleta or clean kitchen cloth
• •Two heavy baking sheets lined with parchment
• •Pastry brush for the egg wash
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and instant yeast. Make a well in the center. Add the eggs, the warmed milk, and the warmed water. Stir from the center outward with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms. The dough should be soft but not soupy. Yucatán is humid. Some days the flour drinks less water. Hold back two tablespoons of water if the dough feels too wet on the first mix.

   Instant yeast goes straight into the dry ingredients. If you only have active dry yeast, bloom it first in the warm milk for ten minutes until foamy. No me vengas con atajos that skip the bloom.
2. 2

   Knead in the lard

   Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead for five minutes until it starts to come together. Now add the softened manteca de cerdo, a tablespoon at a time, kneading each piece in completely before adding the next. The dough will look like it is falling apart. Keep working. After eight to ten minutes of kneading, the lard absorbs and the dough turns silky, soft, and elastic. La manteca es el sabor and it is also the tenderness. Butter does not give you the same crumb. Vegetable shortening gives you nothing. Use lard.

   The dough is ready when you can stretch a piece thin enough to see your fingers through it without tearing. Panaderos in Mérida call this 'la ventana,' the window. If it tears, knead another two minutes.
3. 3

   First rise

   Form the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl greased with a little lard. Cover with a damp cotton servilleta. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled, about one and a half hours. In the heat of Mérida, this takes an hour. In a cool kitchen, allow more time. The dough is ready when you press a finger into it and the indent stays without springing back.

4. 4

   Divide and shape

   Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface. Punch it down gently to release the gas. Divide into twelve equal pieces, about 80 grams each. A kitchen scale matters here. Patas need to look like sisters on the tray. Roll each piece into a tight ball, cover with the cloth, and let rest for ten minutes. This rest relaxes the gluten so you can shape without fighting the dough.

5. 5

   Form the elongated patas

   Take one rested ball and flatten it into an oval with your palm. If you are filling them, lay a baton of queso de bola down the center now. Fold the long sides over the cheese and pinch to seal. Then roll the dough under your palms into a torpedo about six inches long, tapered slightly at the ends. The shape should be longer than a bolillo and slimmer than a telera. This is the pata. Place each one on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving two inches between them.

   If you are not filling them, the shaping is the same. The classic pata is plain dough, eaten warm with mantequilla and cafe de olla in the late afternoon. The queso de bola version is the merienda upgrade that the Mérida bakeries started selling in the 20th century.
6. 6

   Second rise

   Cover the shaped patas loosely with a clean cotton cloth. Let them rise for 45 minutes to one hour, until visibly puffed and the dough springs back slowly when poked. Halfway through this rise, set your oven to 375F so it is fully heated when the patas are ready. A cold oven kills the final rise that gives the pata its open crumb.

7. 7

   Brush and bake

   Brush each pata gently with the egg yolk and milk wash. This is what gives them the deep golden color that Yucatecan bakeries are known for. Bake on the middle rack for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan once halfway through. The patas are done when the tops are dark gold, the bottoms sound hollow when tapped, and the internal temperature reads 195F. If you filled them with queso de bola, you will see a small bubble of melted cheese pushing through one end. That is the sign. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Cool on a woven petate

   Transfer the patas to a wire rack or, the way the Mérida panaderías do it, a woven palm petate. Let them cool for at least fifteen minutes before eating. The crumb is still setting in those first minutes out of the oven. Tear one open with your hands, not a knife. A serious pata pulls apart in soft, slightly yellow shreds from the egg and lard. Serve warm with mantequilla, with a bowl of frijol colado, or alongside cochinita pibil. In Mérida this is the merienda bread, eaten at five in the afternoon when the worst of the heat has broken.

Chef Tips

• •Use real manteca de cerdo from a carniceria, not the shelf-stable bricks at the supermarket. Hydrogenated lard has had the flavor processed out of it. If you cannot find good lard, render your own from a pound of fresh pork back fat in a low oven for two hours.
• •Queso de bola is Edam, sold in a red wax rind. Do not substitute cheddar, mozzarella, or Monterey Jack. Cheddar will give you a greasy, sharp filling that has nothing to do with Yucatán. If you cannot find Edam, leave the cheese out and make plain patas. A compromise is not an upgrade.
• •The patas are at their best the day they are baked, warm from the oven. They go stale by the next morning because there are no preservatives. If you have leftovers, split them, toast them on a comal with a little mantequilla, and eat them with cafe de olla. This is the merienda the day after.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made through the first rise, then refrigerated overnight. A slow cold ferment deepens the flavor. The next morning, let the dough come to room temperature for one hour before shaping.
• •Shaped patas can be frozen on a sheet pan before the second rise, then transferred to a bag. Thaw on a parchment-lined sheet for three hours at room temperature, then proceed with the second rise and bake.
• •Baked patas can be wrapped in a cotton cloth and kept at room temperature for one day. They do not keep beyond that. They are not a bread engineered for shelf life. They are a bread engineered for the merienda.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 92g)