Rosca Conventual de Reyes

Puebla, in the Angelópolis valley, is the first map point for this rosca; Querétaro's Bajío convents are the second. This is bread from women's ovens: Dominican hands in Puebla, Clarisa hands in Querétaro, women who knew how to turn wheat, eggs, citrus, sugar, and patience into food that paid for a convent and fed a feast.

There is not one chile in this bread. That is also Mexican cuisine. This is a 32-state cuisine, and the sugar work of Puebla and Querétaro belongs beside mole, barbacoa, pozole, and nixtamal. The dough is enriched with eggs, butter, orange zest, and agua de azahar. The decoration is not confetti. Higo cristalizado, candied orange peel, ate de membrillo, and legal acitrón de chilacayote give the rosca its January face.

The old convent roscas used acitrón from biznaga cactus. Today that cactus is protected, and I won't tell you to buy illegal acitrón because tradition without responsibility is laziness wearing a shawl. Use chilacayote cristalizado from a good dulcería. It gives you the chew and the green-gold look without stripping the desert.

You need time. Enriched dough does not obey a rushed cook. Let it rise until it is ready, shape the ring larger than seems reasonable, and put it on the table on Puebla talavera with chocolate caliente beside it. Whoever finds the Niño owes tamales for Candelaria. Así se hace y punto.