Conchas
One of the most popular sweet breads in Mexican bakeries, named after the shell its scored topping imitates. All the difficulty is in that topping: it is a paste of flour, sugar and fat with no water, laid over the buns before the second prove. The rising dough stretches it from beneath and it opens along the score lines — which is why the pattern is cut before the prove, and the oven only sets it.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Dough 20 min
- First prove 90 min
- Topping 15 min
- Shaping 20 min
- Second prove 70 min
- Baking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a soft enriched dough
Combine the flour, milk with the yeast, sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla, knead 8 minutes, then work in the butter and knead a further 10. The dough should be soft and slightly tacky — a firm one gives buns that are dry by the next day.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 180 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 90 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 90 g butter · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Prove until doubled
Cover and leave 90 minutes, until doubled in volume. Dough with this much sugar and fat rises more slowly than bread dough — sugar binds the water the yeast needs, so do not cut this short.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 180 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 90 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 90 g butter · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Make the topping without water
Cream the butter with the icing sugar, add the flour and vanilla and work into a smooth, pliable paste like marzipan. No water and no egg — this paste is not meant to rise, only to crack on the surface.
Ingredients: 120 g plain flour · 120 g icing sugar · 100 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp cocoa · 3 pcs pink food colouring
Marzipan consistency — neither crumbly nor sticky.Divide and colour the topping
Split the paste into three: leave one white, tint one with a few drops of colouring, and work cocoa into the third. White, pink and cocoa conchas often sit side by side in Mexican bakeries; only the cocoa changes the flavour.
Ingredients: 120 g plain flour · 120 g icing sugar · 100 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp cocoa · 3 pcs pink food colouring
Shape 12 smooth balls
Divide the dough into 12 equal balls and shape each by rolling it under your palm on the worktop until the surface is taut and smooth. A taut surface is essential: the topping stretches evenly only over one. Set the balls on two lined baking trays, about 6 cm apart.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 180 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 90 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 90 g butter · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Flatten the topping and lay it on
Divide each colour into 4 portions. Press them between sheets of film into discs slightly wider than the buns and lay one on each, pressing gently at the sides. It should cover the whole top and come halfway down.
Ingredients: 120 g plain flour · 120 g icing sugar · 100 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp cocoa · 3 pcs pink food colouring
A disc wider than the bun — press it down at the sides.Score the shell pattern
Score the topping with a knife tip in curved lines radiating from the centre, cutting right through it but not into the dough beneath. The cuts are where the topping will crack as the buns prove.
Ingredients: 120 g plain flour · 120 g icing sugar · 100 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp cocoa · 3 pcs pink food colouring
Through the topping, but not into the dough below.Prove and bake to a golden base
Leave at room temperature (not somewhere very warm, or the butter in the topping will melt) for 70 minutes, until the buns are visibly risen and the topping has opened along the score lines. Heat the oven to 180 °C during the last 20 minutes, then bake 18 minutes at 180 °C, one tray at a time. The topping should stay pale — its job is crispness, not colour; the base of the bun should be golden.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 180 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 90 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 90 g butter · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Before you start
Lard instead of butter
Traditionally the topping is made with lard or baker's shortening rather than butter — it gives a shorter, sandier texture that cracks better. Butter tastes better, but the topping spreads more easily and cracks less cleanly. Both are common today.
Eat them the same day
Conchas are at their best on the day they are baked; after that the topping softens from the moisture in the dough. The next day they are best dunked in coffee or hot chocolate — a favourite way of eating conchas in Mexico anyway.
Without food colouring
The pink version is purely visual. Natural colours: cocoa (brown), instant coffee (beige), powdered strawberry or beetroot (pink). Only the cocoa and coffee noticeably change the flavour; strawberry or beetroot powder in this amount is barely detectable.
