Pan Torcido Tijuanense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Kitchen scale that measures in grams
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Bench scraper for dividing the dough
• •Heavy cast iron skillet or sheet pan for generating oven steam
• •Baking sheet with parchment paper
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, grated piloncillo, and yeast. Stir until the piloncillo dissolves. Let it sit for ten minutes. You want to see a soft foam form on the surface. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead. Buy new yeast. No me vengas con atajos.

   Piloncillo dissolves slowly. Grate it on the smallest holes of a box grater or break it into shards with the back of a heavy knife. A whole cone will sit in the water like a rock and the yeast will not feed.
2. 2

   Build the dough

   Add the bread flour, kosher salt, softened manteca de cerdo, and the lime juice to the yeast mixture. The lime juice is not for flavor. It is for the sour edge the tijuanenses expect in a torcido, and it strengthens the gluten. Stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy mass forms, then turn it onto a clean counter.

3. 3

   Knead until smooth

   Knead the dough by hand for ten to twelve minutes. Push, fold, turn, repeat. The dough will start sticky and finish smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky. When you pull a small piece and stretch it between your fingers, it should form a thin window without tearing. That is the gluten. That is what gives the torcido its chewy, dense crumb. A stand mixer with a dough hook works in eight minutes at medium-low speed if your hands are tired, but the hand kneader always feels the dough better.

4. 4

   First rise

   Grease a clean bowl with a thin film of manteca. Roll the dough in the bowl so it is lightly coated, then cover with a damp cloth. Let it rise in a warm corner of the kitchen for about ninety minutes, until doubled. In a cold kitchen, this takes longer. In Tijuana in August, faster. The dough tells you when it is ready, not the clock.

5. 5

   Divide and rest

   Punch the dough down gently to release the gas. Turn it onto a lightly floured counter and divide into twelve equal pieces of about seventy grams each. Use a scale. Even pieces bake evenly. Round each piece into a tight ball by cupping your hand over it and dragging it in small circles against the counter. Cover the balls with a cloth and let them rest for fifteen minutes. The gluten needs to relax before you shape, otherwise the dough fights you.

6. 6

   Shape the twist

   Take one rested ball and roll it under your palms into a rope about twenty-five centimeters long, tapered slightly at the ends. Lift the rope by both ends and twist them in opposite directions, the right hand rolling toward you, the left hand away. Then fold the twisted rope in half so the two ends meet and pinch them together. The rope will coil itself into the signature torcido shape, a thick twisted braid with two pointed ends. This is the form. The twist is not decoration. It creates the crevices that crisp in the oven and the dense interior that holds carne asada juices without falling apart.

   If your rope tears or snaps back when you try to twist it, the gluten has not relaxed enough. Cover it and walk away for five more minutes. The dough will let you shape it when it is ready.
7. 7

   Second rise

   Place the shaped torcidos on a baking sheet lined with parchment and dusted with rice flour or semolina, leaving four centimeters between each one. Cover loosely with a cloth and let them rise for forty-five minutes to an hour. They should look puffed but not doubled. Press a floured finger gently against one. The dent should slowly spring back halfway. That is the proof you are looking for.

8. 8

   Heat the oven and prepare the steam

   Thirty minutes before baking, place a heavy cast iron skillet or sheet pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Heat the oven to 230C (450F). The skillet must be screaming hot when the bread goes in. You will pour water into it to create steam, which is what gives the torcido its crackling crust.

9. 9

   Bake with steam

   Slide the baking sheet of torcidos onto the middle rack. Immediately pour one cup of hot water into the preheated skillet on the bottom rack and shut the oven door fast. Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the rolls are deep golden, almost mahogany at the ridges of the twist, and they sound hollow when you tap the bottom. Do not open the oven for the first fifteen minutes. The steam is doing the work.

   Pale torcidos are underbaked torcidos. The dark color on the twist ridges is where the crust crisps and where the flavor lives. Bake them harder than you think.
10. 10

    Cool before cutting

    Transfer the torcidos to a wire rack and let them cool for at least twenty minutes before slicing. A hot torcido is a gummy torcido on the inside. The crumb needs to set. When they are cool enough to handle but still warm, split one lengthwise. The interior should be cream-colored, dense but airy, with the slight sour edge that tells you the lime did its job. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Manteca de cerdo, not butter. Butter makes a soft enriched roll. Manteca makes a torcido. If you cannot find good rendered lard, render your own from pork fatback. The supermarket hydrogenated lard in the green tub is a compromise and not a small one.
• •Weigh the flour and water in grams. Bread is a ratio, not a feeling, and the difference between 320 grams of water and one and a third measured cups is enough to change the crumb. Buy a kitchen scale. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
• •If you want to push the sour edge closer to a Valle de Guadalupe sourdough style, replace fifty grams of the flour and fifty grams of the water with one hundred grams of active sourdough starter and cut the yeast in half. The fermentation will take longer but the flavor will deepen. This is how the panaderos in Ensenada have been doing it for a hundred years.
• •The torcido is the torta bread. Once you have these, slice one open, fill it with carne asada, sliced avocado, refried beans, pickled jalapenos, and a smear of mayonnaise, and press it on a hot comal. You will understand why Tijuana built a food culture around this roll.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made through the first rise the night before. Punch it down, cover tightly, and refrigerate. The slow cold fermentation deepens the sour edge. Bring it back to room temperature for an hour before dividing and shaping.
• •Baked torcidos are best the day they come out of the oven. They keep for one more day in a paper bag at room temperature, and they freeze well for up to a month wrapped tightly. Refresh frozen torcidos in a 200C (400F) oven for five minutes and they come back to life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)