Conchas (Shells) are Mexican Sweet Breads made with a soft and buttery brioche-like dough, formed into a shell, and topped with a sugar-shell coating.
According to Wikipedia, conchas are one of the most famous Mexican pastries and are also referred to as “pan de huevo”.
I hadn’t had the pleasure of eating a concha so when Heather of girlichef chose them as the monthly bake, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but they sounded delightful.
The challenge as presented to the Bread Baking Babes
The buns themselves are a fairly basic, enriched sweet bread with butter and eggs. Heather’s challenge was in making the sugar shell. She always used butter in the past—which was delicious, but she thought we might want to try shortening because it’s supposed to make for a crispier topping. She’s tried making conchas using powdered sugar and granulated sugar. She’s also added cinnamon and food coloring and made the shell lines/cuts with a knife and with some cool cutters.
Ideas for the sugar shell topping for these conchas
- Butter vs. Margarine or Shortening (or something else)
- Color vs No Color – natural, cocoa powder, strawberry Quick, food coloring (gel, liquid, paste, etc – Susan uses natural colors here
- Flavoring – plain sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, or Nesquick (also adds color), natural coloring might also add flavor (powdered freeze-dried fruits), zest or extracts, etc.
- Impression – stamp vs knife vs pastry ring (good video here using pastry ring)
- Sugar – powdered vs granulated (or something else)
I decided to keep things simple and top some of the conchas with a plain sugar shell topping and some with cinnamon cocoa. They were a very pleasant surprise. Although conchas are bread, they tasted soft and sweet and reminded me of one of my favorite cookies made with sour cream. These sweet breads don’t include any sour cream but they are fluffy and melt in your mouth.
I made a baker’s dozen this time, but I think next time I try these, I’ll make them smaller. There is a lot of delicious goodness in these delights so a little bit goes a long way. I enjoyed these sweet breads and so did my son and my new taste tester.
Conchas Mexican Sweet Breads
- Yield: 6 small or 12 large 1x
Description
These Conchas (Shells) are Mexican Sweet Breads made with a soft and buttery brioche-like dough, formed into a shell, and topped with a sugar-shell coating.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 392 grams (14 ounces) bread flour + more as needed
- 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 7 grams active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 102 grams (4 ounces / 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 140 grams (5 ounces) granulated sugar
Sugar Shell Topping: I adapted my version from La Cocinade De Leslie’s shell topping
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup organic sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup + 1-2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Making the Dough:
Add flour, eggs, egg yolk, and salt to a mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Start the mixer on low speed. Â Meanwhile, add yeast to water and stir until creamy and well dissolved. Â Pour into the flour mixture and let the mixer continue to work, now over medium speed, for 3-4 minutes.
Add the butter, and continue to beat for another 3-4 minutes. Â Lastly, add the sugar, and continue mixing for another 3 – 4 minutes or until the dough is gooey, sticky, elastic, and very smooth.
Turn dough out of the mixer, form into a ball, and place in a greased bowl.  Cover with plastic or a kitchen towel and let rise at a warm room temperature until doubled in size, 3-4 hours. Note: After the bulk ferment, if you aren’t ready to shape and bake the conchas, you can place the dough in the refrigerator overnight. Let it warm up to room temperature for at least 30 minutes before shaping the conchas.
Making the Sugar Shell Topping:
Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and organic sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until well combined. Start with 1/2 cup of butter, add more if the dough feels too dry. Use your fingers, or a pastry blender if you prefer. Work in the vanilla.
Continue mixing until the sugar mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Stir in the cocoa powder and ground cinnamon into one of the doughs of sugar topping, mixing until well combined. (The mixture might be sticky, but don’t add more flour.) Refrigerate the dough until ready to use. Refrigerating the dough makes it easier to work with; however, if you refrigerate it too long, you will need to let it warm up to room temperature because it will be too stiff to work with.
Assembling the Conchas:
Grease heavy baking sheets with butter or vegetable shortening (or use parchment or a silpat). Rub a bit of butter onto your hands to make for easy rolling. Divide dough into 12 or 16 equal pieces and form into balls. Then, slightly press them flat, as in a thick disk. Leave about 2 inches of space between each of the conchas so they will have room to expand.
Divide your sugar topping into 12 or 16 equal pieces (the same number as dough balls).  Form each into a ball and flatten into a thin disk.  Place a disk on top of each dough ball and lightly press down.  The sugar should cover the whole surface—it will pull away from the edges as the dough rises.
If you have a concha mold, press it on the sugar topping. Â If you don’t have one, cut through the sugar topping with a knife or the edge of a circle cutter, making shell-type lines.
Leave the prepared conchas in a warm area of your kitchen, uncovered, and let them rise again, for about 45 minutes to an hour or so, or until they’ve almost doubled in size.  Preheat the oven to 350° F during the last 15-20 minutes of rise time.
Slide the conchas into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the conchas are just golden around the edges and have fluffed up. Â Be careful that your oven is not hotter than it should be, or the outsides will get very dark and the sugar topping will discolor.
Carefully remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Category: Sweet Bread
- Cuisine: Mexican
Heather of girlichef is the host kitchen this month for the Bread Baking Babes. She chose Conchas as the monthly challenge.
Happy Baking!
Cathy
The Bread Baking Babes are:
- Bake My Day – Karen
- blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth
- Bread Experience – Cathy
- Feeding my Enthusiasms – Pat/Elle
- girlichef – Heather
- Life’s a Feast – Jamie
- Lucullian Delights – Ilva
- My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna
- My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna
- Notitie Van Lien – Lien
- Thyme for Cooking – Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)
- Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
- Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
I love the way your topping looks Cathy! Beautiful photos too. I’m so glad Heather encouraged us to make these!
Thanks Karen! This was an interesting bread to make and delicious as well.
I’m so impressed at the clearly different colours between your two toppings. Beautiful, just beautiful.
And don’t they taste delicious?
Thanks Elizabeth! Yes, they are absolutely delicious!
They look beautiful, a very nice shell-pattern. I see that your topping is probably twice as thick as mine.
I agree I will make more than 12 next time too, they grew in very huge rolls when in 12.
Thanks Lien! Yes, my topping was pretty thick but it sure was good.
Your conchas are so pretty, and they look so perfectly formed. I’m so happy I could introduce you to them! 🙂
Thanks Heather! I happy you introduced me to conchas as well. Or maybe not, because they are so good!
Love that your shells were thicker…it made the shell impression more impressive. Cocoa/cinnamon sounds like a flavor to try next time. Yum!
The cocoa/cinnamon was great but so were the plain ones. I loved them both!
Must be the cold weather but I keep thinking how good they would be for Christmas breakfast. Love sweet breads
Katie these would be good for Christmas breakfast or for any breakfast. I love sweet breads too. Perhaps you’re right that they should be savored on a special occasion.
So So beautiful yours! Your topping is so thick that it makes a real impression, they look so professional!
Thank you Karen! And here I thought I was doing it all wrong since they looked so different. They are yummy for sure.
I just really really need to try these. I can see I missed out not being around for this one.
These look so wonderful Cathy! I must bake …