Tornitos Acambarenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl or stand mixer with dough hook
• •Bench scraper for dividing dough
• •Two heavy baking sheets or charolas
• •Pastry brush for milk and glaze

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the pata

   Feed your pata or wheat sourdough starter 6 to 8 hours before mixing. It should be bubbly, domed, and smell lightly sour, like flour, milk, and fruit left in a warm panadería. If it smells sharp and tired, feed it again. The pata is masa madre, not baking powder. No me vengas con atajos.

2. 2

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl, combine the active pata, lukewarm milk, eggs, sugar, canela mexicana, anise, orange zest, and vanilla. Stir in the flour and salt until a rough dough forms. Knead by hand or with a stand mixer on low until the dough starts to pull together, about 5 minutes.

3. 3

   Work in lard

   Add the softened manteca de cerdo a tablespoon at a time, kneading until each addition disappears before adding the next. At first the dough will look greasy and badly behaved. Keep working. It will become smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky. La manteca es el sabor, and in Acámbaro breads it gives the crumb its short, tender bite.

4. 4

   Ferment slowly

   Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it ferment at warm room temperature for 4 to 5 hours, until puffed by half. This is not a fast bakery yeast dough. The pata builds flavor slowly. If your kitchen is cool, give it more time. The dough should feel alive under your fingers, not inflated like a balloon.

5. 5

   Shape the spirals

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured table and divide it into 18 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 10 inches long, then coil it into a loose spiral like a small tornillo, tucking the end underneath. Do not make them machine-perfect. The hand shows in this bread. Set them on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving space between them.

6. 6

   Proof the tornitos

   Cover the shaped tornitos with a clean cloth and let them proof 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until they look relaxed and slightly swollen. Press one gently with a floured finger. The indentation should return slowly. If it springs back hard, wait. If it collapses, you waited too long.

7. 7

   Bake until golden

   Heat the oven to 375F. Brush the tornitos lightly with milk. Bake 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans once, until the ridges are golden and the edges take on a darker caramel color. In Acámbaro the horno de bóveda gives that edge faster than a home oven, so watch the color, not only the clock.

8. 8

   Glaze while warm

   Whisk the powdered sugar, hot water, and lime juice into a thin glaze. Brush it over the tornitos while they are still warm, not hot enough to melt the glaze away. The coating should dry into a pale, crackly sugar skin that catches on the spiral ridges. Let them cool on a rack before serving with café de olla.

Chef Tips

• •If you do not have pata from an Acámbaro bakery, use a mature wheat sourdough starter. That is the honest compromise. Do not replace it with baking powder and still call it Acámbaro bread.
• •Use clean, fresh manteca de cerdo from a Mexican butcher or a panadería supplier. Shelf-stable supermarket lard can taste flat or stale. If the fat smells old, the bread will taste old.
• •The dough should ferment slowly. A warm kitchen in Guanajuato moves differently from a cold apartment in Chicago. Watch the dough, not your impatience.
• •These are merienda breads, not dessert pastries. The glaze is thin. If you bury them under frosting, you've made something else.

Advance Preparation

• •Feed the pata the night before or early in the morning so it is active when you mix the dough.
• •The shaped tornitos can proof overnight in the refrigerator after shaping. Let them sit at room temperature 45 to 60 minutes before baking.
• •Baked tornitos keep well for two days in a covered bread box. Rewarm briefly in a low oven to soften the crumb before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 57g)