Tierra Caliente Corn Bread (Pan de Vaqueta)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Wooden board or flour-dusted work table
• •Linen cloth or woven servilleta for covering dough
• •Baking stone or heavy sheet pan
• •Long wooden peel if using a horno de lena

Instructions

1. 1

   Dissolve the piloncillo

   Warm 160 grams of the water until it feels warm to your finger, not hot. Stir in the grated piloncillo until dissolved. Let it cool until just warm. If you pour hot syrup over masa madre, you weaken the ferment before it begins. Patience starts here.

2. 2

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl, combine the harina de trigo, harina de maiz, salt, and crushed anise seed. Add the masa madre, cooled piloncillo water, remaining 120 grams water, softened manteca de cerdo, and egg. Mix with your hand until no dry flour remains. The dough will feel tacky and slightly gritty from the corn. That texture is correct.

3. 3

   Knead until elastic

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured table and knead for 10 to 12 minutes. It should become smoother, stretchy, and soft, but it will not feel like white pan dulce dough because the harina de maiz interrupts the gluten. Do not drown it in extra flour. A heavy hand makes a heavy loaf.

   If the dough tears immediately, rest it for 10 minutes and continue kneading. Corn flour needs time to hydrate before the wheat can do its work.
4. 4

   Proof overnight

   Shape the dough into a round, place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise at cool room temperature for 10 to 12 hours. In Tlapehuala, older bakers rested dough on vaqueta. In your kitchen, use a covered bowl or a flour-dusted linen-lined basket. The dough should rise by about half, smell lightly sour and sweet, and feel airy under your fingers.

5. 5

   Shape the loaves

   Turn the dough onto a floured board. Divide it into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a low oval or round loaf, pressing gently so the crumb stays even. Place the loaves on a parchment-lined sheet pan or a well-floured wooden peel if you are baking on a stone. Cover with a cloth and let proof 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until puffy and slow to spring back when touched.

6. 6

   Heat the oven

   Heat the oven to 400F with a baking stone inside if you have one. A horno de leña gives stronger bottom heat and a deeper crust, but a home oven can do honest work if you preheat it properly. Give it at least 45 minutes. Bread knows when the oven was rushed.

7. 7

   Brush and score

   Beat the tablespoon of milk or water with a fork and brush the tops lightly. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Score each loaf with 2 or 3 shallow cuts. The cuts guide the expansion so the bread opens where you tell it to. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

8. 8

   Bake the bread

   Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating once, until the loaves are deep golden, firm on the sides, and sound hollow when tapped underneath. The crust should be thin and the crumb should smell of corn, piloncillo, and anise. Cool at least 1 hour before slicing. Cut too early and you crush the structure you spent all night building.

9. 9

   Serve or dry

   Serve the bread in thick slices with cafe de olla, or let it sit uncovered overnight if you are making capirotada. For capirotada de Cuaresma, slightly dry bread is not stale bread. It is prepared bread. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use fine harina de maiz, not masa harina for tortillas and not cornstarch. Masa harina brings lime-treated flavor that belongs in tortillas. This bread wants the sweeter, softer corn note of ground corn flour.
• •Manteca de cerdo is the right fat. Butter makes the bread taste like a different bakery. Oil gives tenderness but not the same crumb. La manteca es el sabor.
• •If your masa madre is weak, feed it twice before mixing. The Guadalajara pata used for birote teaches the same lesson: a sourdough is only as good as the ferment behind it. Birote is a sourdough, not a bolillo. Learn the difference.
• •For capirotada, bake the bread one day ahead and slice it thick. Fresh soft slices fall apart too quickly in piloncillo syrup. The bread should absorb, not dissolve.
• •If you have access to a wood oven, bake after the strongest fire has settled and the floor is hot but not scorching. Pan de vaqueta needs steady heat, not punishment.

Advance Preparation

• •Feed the masa madre 6 to 8 hours before mixing so it is active, bubbly, and ready to raise the dough overnight.
• •The loaves keep 3 days wrapped in a cloth at room temperature. For capirotada, leave sliced bread uncovered overnight so it dries slightly.
• •Baked loaves freeze well for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature and warm briefly in a low oven before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 73g)