Panaderia Rosetta ★ 4.8
Panaderia Rosetta in Mexico City is Elena Reygadas' Roma Norte bakery on Colima since 2012, the bakery counter where the rose-guava roll and the concha drive.
Worth the queue: Rol de guayaba (guava rose roll)
History
Concha (Spanish for shell) emerged in Mexico after French and Spanish pastry techniques arrived through colonial-era and Porfiriato-era European bakers. La Vasconia on Tacuba 73 in the Centro Historico, founded 1870, is widely held as the oldest pan dulce bakery in Mexico City; its conchas, orejas and trenza de higo are the local benchmark. The shell-shaped pasta crust is scored with a special crimper called a pan dulce sello. Pasteleria Ideal (Calle 16 de Septiembre, 1927) and Panaderia Rosetta (chef Elena Reygadas, 2010) hold the modern canon for sweet bread in the city.
Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Dairy
Make it at home
Ingredients
- For the dough: 500g strong bread flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 10g instant yeast
- 250ml warm whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 100g unsalted butter softened
- For the topping (pasta de concha): 100g icing sugar
- 100g plain flour
- 100g unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- For chocolate variant: replace 15g flour with 15g cocoa powder in the topping
- Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk
Method
- Whisk flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a stand mixer. Add warm milk and eggs; knead with dough hook 5 minutes.
- Add softened butter 30g at a time, kneading until each is absorbed before the next. The dough is sticky but elastic; knead 10 minutes total.
- Cover, rise 90 minutes in a warm place until doubled.
- Make the topping: cream butter, icing sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir in flour to a smooth, claylike paste. Divide into 12 balls.
- Knock back the dough, divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a tight ball, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Roll each topping ball between sheets of parchment to a 10cm disc. Drape one over each dough ball, pressing gently to adhere.
- Press a concha cutter (or score with the back of a knife in a shell or web pattern) firmly into the topping. The scoring opens up as the bread proves and bakes.
- Cover loosely; prove 45 minutes more.
- Bake at 180C (160C fan) for 18 to 20 minutes until the topping has cracked open along the score and the underside is golden.
- Cool on a rack 20 minutes before eating; the topping crisps as it cools. Tear and dunk in hot chocolate.
Tip from the editors. Score the shell pattern before the second prove; cutting after proving collapses the dough. The cuts open up as the bread expands.
Where to eat concha (pan dulce)
Concha (Pan dulce) in Mexico City
Pasteleria Ideal ★ 4.4
Pasteleria Ideal in Mexico City is the 1927 Centro Historico bakery on Uruguay Street, the two-floor cake hall where conchas, oreja and the kilometre-long.
Worth the queue: Rosca de reyes (Three Kings cake)
Pasteleria Suiza ★ 4.3
Pasteleria Suiza in Mexico City is the 1942 Condesa bakery facing Parque Espana, the Spanish-Catalan-Swiss bake shop now in its third generation that put out.
Worth the queue: Pan de muerto
La Panera Coyoacan ★ 4.4
La Panera Coyoacan in Mexico City is the Del Carmen artisan bakery and cafe on Londres just off Plaza Hidalgo, a sit-down room with house-baked breads.
Worth the queue: Chocolate concha
Pancracia Panaderia Artesanal ★ 4.5
Pancracia Panaderia Artesanal in Mexico City is the Roma Norte takeaway bakery on the corner of Orizaba and Chiapas, a small counter that puts out sourdough.
Worth the queue: Vigilante (small double-butter croissant)
More cities are in research. Want concha (pan dulce) covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.