Bollos del Istmo de Tehuantepec

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or a wooden artesa for hand kneading
• •Cast iron comal for toasting the anise
• •Two heavy sheet pans lined with parchment
• •Cotton servilletas for covering the dough
• •Bench scraper for dividing the dough
• •Pastry brush for the egg wash

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the anise

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Add the anise seeds and toast for about a minute, swirling the pan, until the kitchen smells of licorice and warm pollen. Pull them off the heat the moment they release their oil. Burned anise is bitter and there is no fixing it later. Set aside to cool.

2. 2

   Wake the yeast

   In a small bowl, combine the warm milk, the yeast, and one tablespoon of the sugar. Stir once and walk away for ten minutes. The mixture should puff and smell like beer. If it does not, your yeast is dead and the bollos will not rise. Start over with new yeast. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Build the dough

   In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour, the remaining sugar, the salt, and the cooled toasted anise. On low speed, add the yeast mixture, the four whole eggs, the two yolks, the orange blossom water, and the orange zest. Mix until a shaggy dough forms, about three minutes.

   If you are mixing by hand on an artesa, do exactly what the panaderas in Juchitan do: make a well in the flour, pour the wet ingredients into the center, and pull the flour in from the sides little by little until the dough comes together.
4. 4

   Add the manteca

   With the mixer running on medium-low, add the softened manteca de cerdo two tablespoons at a time, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding the next. The dough will fight you for a few minutes and look broken. Keep going. Knead on medium for eight to ten minutes total, until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulls cleanly off the sides of the bowl. La manteca es el sabor. Butter is not a substitute. The bollos of the Istmo take pork lard and that is the texture you are after, soft, rich, with a tender crumb that pulls apart in long strands.

5. 5

   First rise

   Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp cotton servilleta, and let rise in a warm corner of the kitchen for 90 minutes to two hours, until doubled. The Istmo is hot and the dough rises fast there. In a colder kitchen, give it the time it needs. The dough is ready when you press a finger into it and the indent stays.

6. 6

   Shape the bollos

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 16 equal pieces, about 80 grams each. Working one at a time, flatten each piece, fold the edges into the center to build tension, then roll under a cupped palm against the counter until you have a tight, smooth ball. The seam should disappear underneath. Place the bollos on two parchment-lined sheet pans, leaving three inches between each one. They will spread.

   Keep the dough you are not shaping covered with a damp cloth. Enriched dough dries out fast and a dry surface tears instead of stretching.
7. 7

   Second rise

   Cover the shaped bollos loosely with a clean cotton servilleta and let them proof for 45 minutes to an hour, until visibly puffed and pillowy. Press one gently with a fingertip; the indent should spring back slowly, not snap back. If it snaps back, give them more time. Underproofed bollos bake into dense, tight rolls.

8. 8

   Egg wash and ajonjoli

   About 20 minutes before baking, position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350F. Brush each bollo gently with the egg wash, getting into the seams where the dough rose without snapping the surface tension. Sprinkle a generous pinch of ajonjoli over the top of each one. The sesame is not optional. It is the visual and textural signature of the bollo istmeno.

9. 9

   Bake until golden

   Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the bollos are deep golden brown on top and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped. The internal temperature should read 195F to 200F. Pull them the moment they are dark gold. Overbaked bollos turn dry and the manteca crumb suffers.

10. 10

    Cool and serve

    Transfer the bollos to a wire rack and let them cool for at least 20 minutes before tearing into one. The crumb sets as they cool. Serve with chocolate de agua frothed with a molinillo, or split and filled with quesillo, or eaten plain at the end of a vela when the music is winding down. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use real manteca de cerdo, the kind rendered from pork fat with flavor still in it, not the bleached white shortening sold as manteca in some supermarkets. If you cannot find good rendered lard, render your own from pork fatback. Butter will give you a different bread, not a better one.
• •Toast the anise. Untoasted anise tastes thin and medicinal. A minute on the comal pulls the warm licorice perfume out of the seed and that perfume is half the bollo.
• •Ajonjoli has to be raw, not the pre-toasted sesame seeds sold in some places. The seeds toast in the oven on top of the bread, and pre-toasted seeds will burn before the bollos are done.
• •The bollos are best the day they are baked, but they keep wrapped in a cotton servilleta for two days. Day-old bollos split open and toasted on a comal with a smear of manteca and a pinch of salt are their own kind of breakfast.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made through the first rise, then deflated and refrigerated overnight. Pull it out 30 minutes before shaping to take the chill off. The cold ferment deepens the flavor.
• •Shaped bollos can be frozen on the sheet pan after shaping, then transferred to a bag. Thaw and proof at room temperature for two to three hours before baking.
• •Baked bollos freeze well in a sealed bag for up to a month. Refresh in a 300F oven for eight minutes to bring the crumb back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 77g)