Tortitas de Santa Clara
Photo: CUTI1 · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

The tortita is named for the convent of Santa Clara, whose kitchens sat on what is now Avenida 6 Oriente and whose nuns developed the pumpkin-seed paste that tops it. The biscuit itself is short and dry on purpose, a vehicle for the pepita glaze rather than the other way round. It is one of the few colonial convent sweets that never left the city, and La Gran Fama has sold them from the same block since the 19th century, alongside cocadas, borrachitos, mueganos and rompope.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield Makes 16Hands-on 30 minTotal 1 hr 30 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 250g plain flour
  • 150g cold butter, cubed
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tbsp cold water
  • 200g hulled pumpkin seeds
  • 200g caster sugar for the glaze
  • 100ml water
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method

  1. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it looks like coarse sand, then bind with the yolk and cold water. Chill for thirty minutes.
  2. Roll to four millimetres and cut sixteen rounds about seven centimetres across. Bake at 170C for fourteen minutes until pale gold, then cool.
  3. Toast the pumpkin seeds lightly and grind them to a fine powder.
  4. Boil the sugar and water to 115C, then beat in the ground seeds and vanilla until you have a thick, spreadable paste.
  5. Spread the warm paste over each biscuit in a domed layer while it is still workable.
  6. Leave uncovered for at least an hour so the topping dries to a matte, chalky finish.

Tip from the editors. Work fast once the pepita paste comes off the heat. It stiffens within minutes and cannot be softened again without turning grainy.

Where to eat tortitas de santa clara

Tortitas de Santa Clara in Puebla

La Gran Fama ★ 4.3

$ BakeryTraditional Puebla sweetsCentro HistoricoWalk-in only

La Gran Fama opened on the Calle de los Dulces in Puebla in the 19th century as the city's first camote counter, still selling tortitas de Santa Clara.

Worth the queueCamote

TipOpened in the 19th century as the first camote counter in the city, and the tortitas de Santa Clara are the other thing to buy.

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