Conchas (Mexican sweet bread). Soft inside and crunchy outside, these shell shaped buns with a shell pattern on the top are perfect with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee! Conchas are a soft and sweet Mexican bread with a white topping that resembles the surface of a seashell. This is where the concha gets its name, since “concha” means “shell” in Spanish.
These babies were a labor of love. I started developing the recipe for back in August, and because they need a good amount of attention, I only got to test them a few times. Mexican conchas are one of my favorite types of pan dulce, and I know I’m not alone! You can have Conchas (Mexican sweet bread) using 15 ingredients and 18 steps. Here is how you cook it.
Ingredients of Conchas (Mexican sweet bread)
- It’s 3 tsp of active dry yeast.
- You need 1/2 cup of warm water (105°-115°F).
- It’s 1/2 cup of lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled).
- It’s 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.
- Prepare 1/3 cup of butter (softened).
- It’s 1 tsp of salt.
- It’s 1 of egg.
- Prepare 3 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (possibly 4 cups).
- It’s of flavored topping dough.
- It’s 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.
- It’s 1/4 cup of butter (or margarine).
- You need 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour.
- It’s 1 tsp of ground cinnamon.
- It’s 1/4 tsp of vanilla.
- It’s 1 1/2 tsp of orange zest.
I’ve received so many requests from readers over the last few years to post a concha recipe and I’m happy to say that I finally did it! I’ve been eating conchas my entire life and my family is pretty much obsessed with them. Invest some time making these sweet, streusel-topped Mexican breakfast buns and the results will be well worth it. Sweet Bread literally translates to pan dulce in Spanish.
Conchas (Mexican sweet bread) instructions
- Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl..
- Stir in milk, sugar, butter, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour.
- Beat until smooth..
- Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle..
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface..
- Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes..
- Place in a large greased bowl, then turn greased side up..
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 1 1/2 hours. The dough is ready if it leaves an indentation when touched..
- Meanwhile, prepare Flavored Topping Dough. Refer to step 12.
- Once your concha bread dough has rised, Punch dough down; divide into 12 equal pieces..
- Shape each piece into a ball place on greased cookie sheet..
- FLAVORED TOPPING DOUGH: Beat sugar and margarine until light and fluffy..
- Topping Dough: Stir in flour until mixture is the consistency of thick paste.Divide into 3 equal parts..
- Topping Dough: Stir cinnamon into one part, vanilla extract (coconut extract is delicious as well) into one part and orange zest into another part. I like to also color the vanilla and orange zest parts with food coloring the cinnamon part will be brown on its own..
- Divide each part of topping dough into 4 equal pieces. (So you should have twelve all together).
- Pat each piece into a 3-inch circle.Place 1 circle of Topping Dough on each ball of dough, shaping it down over the ball..
- Make 5 or 6 cuts across the topping, using a table knife, to form a shell pattern. Cover and let rise until double about 40 minutes..
- Heat oven to 375°F. Bake buns until golden brown, about 20 minutes..
While concha in English translates to seashell. Makes sense given that conchas look like seashells! When I moved back to California after I graduated college, I realized I literally knew nothing about Mexican food. Concha: A sweet bread roll covered in a cookie crust, it’s traditionally flavored with either vanilla or chocolate — though conchas are Everyday Shapes. Many Mexican sweet breads are shaped like their ingredients — so even if you don’t recognize the name, the visual of the pastry might give you.