Chef Lupita
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Culinary Explorer
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Charamuscas Guanajuatenses (Momias de Piloncillo)
Created by
Guanajuato's market candy of piloncillo cooked to hard crack, pulled by hand until satin, then shaped into mummies, Quijotes, and skulls for feria tables and callejones.
Desserts
Mexican
Halloween
Holiday
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
20 min cook•55 min total
Yield16 to 20 charamuscas
Guanajuato capital owns these charamuscas. Not the whole Bajio. Guanajuato. You see them in the callejones around Mercado Hidalgo, near the Alhondiga, in baskets and glass jars, twisted into momias, calaveras, Quijotes, and long amber ropes that look simple until you try to pull one clean.
The ingredient is piloncillo, the dark cone of unrefined cane sugar that gives this candy its color and its deep molasses bite. White sugar helps the structure, yes, but piloncillo gives the soul. A little lime juice keeps the syrup from turning grainy, and a little mantequilla keeps the pull supple enough to shape. No me vengas con atajos. Candy work is temperature, timing, and hands that know when to move.
The women who taught me this near Mercado Hidalgo did not use a thermometer. They dropped syrup into cold water, pinched it, and knew by the crack. I am giving you the thermometer because burned piloncillo forgives nobody. Pull while the candy is hot enough to stretch but not so hot it punishes you. Shape the strips fast. Once it sets, it sets. Asi se hace y punto.
These are not elegant sweets. They are feria sweets, dulceria de barrio sweets, the kind a child stares at through glass because one mummy looks more alive than the next. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Charamuscas are part of the Bajio's cane-sugar candy tradition, tied to colonial and 19th-century piloncillo production across Guanajuato and neighboring states. Guanajuato capital made the form its own by shaping the pulled candy into mummies after the city's famous mummified bodies became a public attraction in the late 19th century. By the 20th century, mummy-shaped charamuscas had become a local souvenir sold around Mercado Hidalgo and the callejones, distinct from convent candies and from the cajeta register of Celaya's dulceros.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
piloncillo
Quantity
500 grams
chopped into small pieces
granulated cane sugar
Quantity
300 grams
water
Quantity
1/2 cup
glucose syrup or light corn syrup
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fresh lime juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons, plus more for greasing
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
pure vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
vegetable oil or butter
Quantity
as needed
for lightly coating hands and tools
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| piloncillochopped into small pieces | 500 grams |
| granulated cane sugar | 300 grams |
| water | 1/2 cup |
| glucose syrup or light corn syrup | 2 tablespoons |
| fresh lime juice | 1 tablespoon |
| unsalted butter | 2 tablespoons, plus more for greasing |
| fine sea salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| pure vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| vegetable oil or butterfor lightly coating hands and tools | as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Copper cazo or heavy thick-bottomed saucepan
- •Candy thermometer
- •Buttered marble slab, metal tray, or clean stone counter
- •Bench scraper
- •Heatproof gloves
- •Kitchen scissors
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the station
Butter a marble slab, metal tray, or clean stone counter. Set out a bench scraper, kitchen scissors, heatproof gloves, and a small bowl of oil or butter for your hands. Once the syrup is ready, you do not go looking for tools. Candy waits for nobody.
- 2
Dissolve the piloncillo
Put the piloncillo, cane sugar, water, glucose syrup, lime juice, butter, and salt into a heavy copper cazo or thick-bottomed saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring only until the piloncillo dissolves. After that, stop stirring. Stirring after the sugar melts can make crystals. Crystals give you sandy candy, and sandy charamusca is a failed charamusca.
A copper cazo gives even heat and quick response. If you use stainless steel, use a heavy pan and watch the edges carefully because piloncillo burns at the sides first. - 3
Cook to hard crack
Clip on a candy thermometer and cook without stirring until the syrup reaches 300F to 305F. The bubbles will start large and lazy, then become smaller, tighter, and louder. The syrup will smell dark and mineral, not burned. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a little syrup into cold water. It should harden into threads that snap under your teeth. That is hard crack.
- 4
Pour and cool
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla carefully. Pour the syrup onto the buttered slab in one wide ribbon. Do not scrape the burned bits from the sides of the pan. Let it cool for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the edges can be lifted with the scraper. The center should still be flexible and glossy.
- 5
Fold the candy
Use the scraper to fold the edges toward the center again and again. Lightly butter your gloved hands. When the candy is cool enough to touch but still hot, lift it and begin pulling. Stretch it into a rope, fold it back on itself, and pull again. The dark amber will turn lighter and satin. That color change tells you air is entering the candy.
- 6
Shape the mummies
Cut warm ropes into 8-inch lengths. For momias, twist one length into a loose body, wrap a thinner strip around it like bandages, and pinch a small head at the top. For calaveras, coil a short piece and pinch eye sockets with the end of a wooden spoon. For Quijotes, pull a long thin body and bend a little hat or lance shape from the same candy. Work fast. If the candy stiffens, set it near a warm oven for a minute, not inside the oven.
- 7
Let them set
Place the shaped charamuscas on buttered parchment or a lightly greased tray. Let them cool completely until firm and glassy at the edges. Store in a dry tin or glass jar with parchment between layers. Humidity is the enemy. Guanajuato's dry air helps this candy. A coastal kitchen will fight you.
Chef Tips
- •Use real piloncillo cones, not brown sugar. Brown sugar gives sweetness. Piloncillo gives cane depth, mineral bitterness, and the dark amber color that belongs to these charamuscas.
- •The glucose syrup is practical insurance against crystallization. It is not the flavor. The flavor is piloncillo. Do not increase it or the candy will stay too sticky to shape.
- •If the syrup burns, start over. Burned piloncillo tastes harsh and stays harsh. You cannot hide it with vanilla. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado, they will tell you the same.
- •Make these on a dry day if you can. Rainy weather makes pulled sugar tacky and dull. Mexican candy makers know the weather before they light the stove.
Advance Preparation
- •Charamuscas are best made the day you plan to serve or sell them, but they keep for 1 week in a dry airtight tin.
- •Do not refrigerate them. Refrigerator humidity makes the surface sticky and cloudy.
- •Set up the shaping station before cooking the sugar. Once the syrup reaches hard crack, the work is immediate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 50g)
Calories
205 calories
Total Fat
2 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
4 mg
Sodium
50 mg
Total Carbohydrates
48 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
47 g
Protein
0 g
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