Cocoles Oaxaqueños

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting anise
• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or a large bowl for hand kneading
• •Two heavy half-sheet pans
• •Parchment paper
• •Pastry brush for the egg wash
• •Bench scraper for dividing the dough

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the anise

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Add the anise seed and toast it, shaking the pan, for about a minute, until you smell the licorice perfume rising off the seeds. Pull it off the heat the moment it turns fragrant. Anise burns fast and burned anise tastes like medicine. This is the smell that defines a cocol. Skip the toasting and the bread will lack the perfume that makes Oaxacan panaderías smell the way they do at six in the morning.

   Do not crush the anise. Cocoles carry the whole seed, and you should see them speckled through the crumb when you tear one open.
2. 2

   Bloom the yeast

   Stir the warm milk and water together in a small bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and a pinch of the sugar. Let it sit for ten minutes. The surface should turn cloudy and lift with small bubbles. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead and you start over. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Build the dough

   In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, the rest of the sugar, the salt, and the toasted anise. Make a well in the center. Pour in the bloomed yeast mixture, the softened manteca, the two whole eggs, the yolk, and the orange blossom water. La manteca es el sabor. Do not substitute butter. Mix with your hand or the dough hook until everything comes together into a shaggy mass.

4. 4

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for ten to twelve minutes by hand, or eight minutes on medium speed with the dough hook. The dough is enriched with lard and egg, so it stays a little tacky. That is correct. You want it smooth and elastic, soft to the touch but not sticking to your hands. If you press a finger into it, the dent should slowly fill back in.

   Resist adding extra flour. An over-floured cocol turns dry and dense. The dough wants to be soft. Trust it.
5. 5

   First rise

   Lightly grease a bowl with a little manteca. Place the dough in the bowl, turn to coat, and cover with a clean cloth. Let it rise in a warm spot for one and a half to two hours, until doubled. Oaxaca's kitchens run warm, and the rise there is faster. In a cooler kitchen, give it the full two hours. The dough should feel pillowy and smell sweetly of anise and yeast.

6. 6

   Shape the rhomboids

   Punch the dough down and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into sixteen equal pieces, about 65 grams each. Roll each piece into a smooth ball, then press it gently into a flat oval. With the side of your hand, pinch each end into a point so the piece takes the shape of a rhombus, what panaderas in Oaxaca call a rombo. Wider in the middle, pointed at the ends. The shape is the signature. A round cocol is not a cocol. Asi se hace y punto.

   The points should be defined but not sharp. The bread will plump as it rises and bakes, and the rombo softens. Pinch them tighter than you think you need to.
7. 7

   Second rise on the tray

   Line two heavy baking sheets with parchment. Arrange the cocoles two inches apart, points aligned. Cover loosely with a cloth and let them rise for forty-five minutes to one hour, until they look puffed and feel light when you lift one. Underproofed cocoles bake dense. Overproofed ones flatten in the oven. They should be plump but still hold the rombo shape clearly.

8. 8

   Heat the oven

   Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Heat to 375F. The wood-fired hornos in Tlacolula run hotter, but a steady 375 in a home oven gives you the deep amber crust without drying out the crumb.

9. 9

   Egg wash and ajonjolí

   Brush each cocol generously with the egg wash, getting into the seam where the points meet the body. The wash is what gives the bread its glossy mahogany finish. Sprinkle a healthy pinch of ajonjolí across the center of each one. Use whole white sesame seeds, not toasted, because they will toast in the oven and finish gold. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. The seeds are not garnish. They are part of the bread.

10. 10

    Bake until amber

    Bake for 22 to 26 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through and switching racks. The cocoles are ready when the tops are deep amber, the points are dark gold, and the bottoms sound hollow when you tap them. The kitchen will smell like a Zaachila panadería. Cool on a wire rack for at least fifteen minutes before tearing one open. The crumb should be soft, faintly yellow from the egg, speckled with whole anise. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Use real manteca de cerdo, ideally from a Mexican carnicería or rendered at home from pork fat. The shelf-stable hydrogenated stuff at the supermarket is not the same. Lean cocoles taste like cardboard. La manteca es el sabor.
• •Whole anise seed is non-negotiable. Star anise is a different plant with a different flavor and it does not belong here. If your spice shelf only has fennel, leave it out and call the bread something else.
• •Cocoles keep for two days at room temperature in a paper bag, never plastic. Day-old cocoles are arguably better than fresh ones, because they dunk in chocolate without falling apart. That is how the panaderas in Mitla eat them, and they are not wrong.
• •If you cannot find agua de azahar, leave it out. Vanilla extract is not a substitute. It pulls the bread in a different direction. A compromise, not an upgrade.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made through the first rise, then refrigerated overnight covered tightly. The cold slows the yeast and deepens the flavor. Let it come back to room temperature for an hour before shaping.
• •Cocoles freeze well. Cool completely, wrap each one in foil, and freeze in a bag for up to one month. Reheat unwrapped in a 325F oven for ten minutes and they come back close to fresh.
• •Bake them in the morning of the same day you plan to serve them with chocolate de agua. The merienda ritual wants bread that is still soft inside.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 70g)