Mexican muffins, called Mantecadas in Mexican bakeries. They are easy & quick to make sweet bread.
Mantecadas, super easy and quick recipe
Sweetbread has a culture of its own in Mexico and is a tradition that has been embraced and deeply loved for generations. We have primarily Spain and France to thank for that, as their influence is why we have such a passion for sweet pastry and pieces of bread plus a love for that classic combination: coffee and bread.
The shapes and flavors of Mexican sweet pieces of bread amount to more than a thousand, each one with its unique and sometimes picturesque names, like: bows, braids, kisses, brides, bicycles, stones, baldies, lovers, bricks, yoyos, and rails, just to mention a few. We obviously cannot forget to mention the famous “Conchas”, which resemble a seashell and come in many flavors.
Among these baked treats are yeast pieces of bread, puff pastries, cookie-type pieces of bread, and cake-like pieces of bread, like these delicious bread “Mantecadas”, which are really quick and easy to make in your oven. They’re perfect for having a late afternoon coffee with, or for a weekend breakfast in bed, or even for when you have last minute visitors coming over for a cup of coffee or tea.
Mexican bakers are usually men that have learned the trade from one generation to another; some arrived at the baking business as an apprentice, starting their career in bread making from there. Thanks to the internet and social media, I’ve met quite a few of these men, called “panaderos” in Mexico. Some have many years of experience and are now teaching the younger aspiring bakers in Mexico, as they want the Mexican Traditional Bakery to be preserved. They are always happy to share their expertise with me and answer my many questions about baking, and for that, I am very thankful.
But there are also many newcomers, the young bakers, who graduated from culinary school and have fallen in love with bread making, like my friend Hector M. Oliva Balderas, a young man only in his mid 20’s who’s opened his own bakery in the small town of Teotihuacan. Being a baker is hard work, but that doesn’t stop him from his dream of keeping the tradition of artisanal bakery alive. He even delivers his bread on his bicycle a couple days a week. I hope that there’ll be more young people like him out there keeping our customs and traditions.
I’m so proud of this young man. A promise for the future of Mexican bread making.
How to make Mantecadas Recipe
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 400F. Place muffin paper liners in muffin pan. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- Sift together flour, baking powder and yeast in one medium size bowl, and set aside. Place egg and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until sugar has dissolved.
- Add milk and the flavoring of your choice and mix.
- Incorporate the oil in a gentle stream and whisk again to form a homogenous mixture.
- Slowly stir in the dry ingredients plus the pinch of salt, mixing gently until you have a very uniform batter. Do not over mix. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
- With the help of a pitcher or a ladle, pour the batter into the already prepared muffin pan. Fill it up just a little bit below the edge. See picture above.
- Carefully place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes on a cooling rack. They keep well for 2 to 3 days when stored in an airtight container.
HOW TO MAKE MANTECADAS RECIPE
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 125 grams of sugar ½ cup + 1 tbs*
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla or orange essence**
- 1 tsp orange zest optional
- 125 grams of All Purpose flour 1 cup minus 1 tbs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 pinch of salt
COOKING UTENSILS NEEDED:
- Bowls whisk, measuring cups and spoons, muffin paper liners, muffin pan, pitcher or a ladle to pour the batter.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Place muffin paper liners in muffin pan.
- Sift together flour, baking powder and yeast in one medium size bowl, and set aside. Place egg and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until sugar has dissolved.
- Add milk and the flavoring of your choice (vanilla, orange essence plus orange zest) and mix.
- Incorporate the oil in a gentle stream and whisk again to form a homogenous mixture.
- Slowly stir in the dry ingredients plus the pinch of salt, mixing gently until you have a very uniform batter. Do not over mix. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
- With the help of a pitcher or a ladle, pour the batter into the already prepared muffin pan. Fill it up just a little bit bellow the edge. See picture above.
- Carefully place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes on a cooling rack. They keep well for 2 to 3 days when stored in an airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition
¡Buen provecho!
Mely,
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Anonymous
At my house we love "pan". I can't wait to make these and surprise the family. Thank you for your posts, keep up the great work you are doing and the wonderful recipes you are sharing!
Nora Ceccopieri
Mely, siempre los he conocido como quequis. Bimbo les puso el nombre de mantecadas, pero aquī son quequis.
Marisa
Made these for my dad he loves bread any chance he sees any at the store he WILL buy but recently since the pandemic he doesn’t wanna buy any since when you buy bread at the stores anyone can touch anything anyways we’re being safe and this recipe has beeen the closest to store bread even better thanks,10/10
Mely Martínez
Hello Marisa,
Thank you fro trying the recipe. Saludos a tu papá.
Rebecca Subbiah
these look amazing love Mexican breads
Byte64
Amiga, se parece mucho a los que llaman "muffin" o me equivoco?
Tengo una receta de mantecadas en la serie "Panaderìa mexicana", pero nunca las hice.
La tuyas se ven deliciosas.
Ciao!
Tlaz
mmartinez
Hola Flavio,
Como dicen: se te fueron las cabras! 😉 Se hacen con polvo de hornear y levadura. Me imagino que han de ser muy parecidas a las de la serie. Esta receta me la dio un panadero y me encanto, seguido las preparo porque aparte duran varios días. Ya sabes para el cafecito de la tarde. Un abrazo mi querido Flavio!
Patty
Thx very nice…do you have a page in Pinterest?
Mely Martínez
Hello Patty,
Yes, I do, here is the link:https://www.pinterest.com/mexicoimkitchen/
Thank you for visiting!
Anonymous
Hello, Mely!
What's 'AP' flour? Is it a brand or are you referring to pastry flour which is lighter than regular flour?
mmartinez
Hello!
AP stand for All purpose flour. I will add a note to the recipe, that way everyone can understand it. Thanks!
Chris
We look forward to trying these soon, Mely.
Anonymous
Hello Mely, are those regular size or jumbo, and if they are the jumbo muffin tin size, how long would I have to bake them if I want use a regular 12 muffin tin pan? Thank you, I love your recipes.
mmartinez
Hello!
That is regular size muffin pan for 6. If you use regular pan muffin pan for 12, just double the amount of ingredients and bake about the same amount of time as the recipe indicates. For jumbo size muffins, they will take about 25 minutes to be ready.
Saludos!
Emma
Hola, esta receta se ve muy buena y definitivamente la intentare hacer, sin embargo tengo duda acerca de la parte que dice 125 gramos de AP ( 1 cup minus 1 tbs) a qué se refiere con esto?
saludos y gracias 🙂
mmartinez
Hola Emma,
AP se refiere a la harina de todo uso, en inglés "All Purpose". La receta lleva 125 gramos de harina, eso equivale a una taza de harina a la cual el quitas una cucharada de harina. Si tienes alguna otra duda con gusto te contestare.
Saludos!
Ale Medina
I just made this recipe, my kitchen smell so good. My daughter is around waiting they get cool. I confess I made a little changes to the recipe. I used melted and cooled butter instead of oil and 3 tsp of baking powder instead of 1 because I didn't have yeast. To add more delicious flavor, I put in a 1/4 cup of pecans so the result was amazing!!!
Anonymous
Did your muffins turned out dark? My looks burnt. I followed your substitution because that's what I had on hand.
mmartinez
Hello Anonymous,
There are several thing that can affect the results you are mentioning. It could be the oven. Let's start with the oven. Be sure to heat your oven for 10 to 15 minutes before baking to bring it up to the temperature called for in the recipe. Next, check your oven temp. If it's too hot, the muffins will burn or get too brown on the bottom. You may have to experiment a bit with the baking time, especially if you think your oven isn't quite accurate.
As for the muffins tins, using dark, nonstick will make the bottoms of your muffins get too brown or burn. To compensate for this, reduce the oven temp by 25ºF. Also, the muffin tins may be too large for the oven.
I hope you give the recipe another try.
Lizbeth
Hi mely can i use active dry yeast
mmartinez
Hello Lizbeth,
Yes, you can use it. Same amount as indicated in the ingredients.
Taina
Las mantecas siempre me han encantado y en especial con un buen cafe.
GlorV1
Oh how i wish I could get up and go make some. Ir's so cold and I'm under the blankets early, like 4:20 pm
Anonymous
The sugar and flour both say 125 grams but the measurement in the parenthesis is different, which is correct?
mmartinez
Hello,
Sugar is heavier that flour. The same amount of flour weight less than sugar. For example: one cup of flour about weights 125 grams, and 1 cup of granulated sugar weights 200 grams.
Happy baking!
Taylor Bishop
Can the milk in this recipe be substituted with almond or soy milk?
mmartinez
Hello Taylor,
I think you can substitute almond or soy milk in this recipe, and still have a great end result.
Happy baking!
Unknown
Both the sugar and flour say 125 grams but sugar says 1/2 cup + 1 tbs and flour says 1 cup – tbs, which is it? They both call for 125 grams.
mmartinez
Hello,
Even though the flour and sugar needed are 125 grams each, they don't have the same volume or weight.
Carol Melendez
Just made these and they were delicious… Omg! I'm so happy, I will never buy these again, the recipe was so easy and fast! Only thing I added was the caviar from a vanilla bean in my egg and sugar mixture and I baked at 375* for 18 minutes. Perfecto!! Muchas gracias por la receta!
paolabee
Gracias por esta receta! Me salieron deliciosos! Cambie la receta un poco. duplique los ingredientes para hacer 12, y use 1/2 taza de mantequilla derretida y 1/2 taza de aceite de coco. Tambien use menos azucar, un poco menos de 1 taza (7/8 taza). Y me salieron 15 mantecadas:)
Jess HG
Hola, Qué tal? Gracias por compartir esta receta, yo agregué nueces picadas a la mezcla y quedaron unos deliciosos panquecitos; que no duraron ni un día!
Amy Rodriguez
Thank you for the recipe. They taste so good! I used vanilla without the zest this time. I look forward to trying other flavors (and more of your recipes!)
vero leon
its midnite and just finishing up a batch of 12.super easy and yummy, thanks 🙂
Anonymous
Omg!!! I tried this on thursday night and they were gone by friday and had to make some more today!!! Delicious and they also taste like "mantecadas tia rosa" which it was great
Anonymous
Mines didn't turn out great … it's dark .. and i dont know if substituting the oil for 2/3 butter and then adding 2 more tbs of baking powder instead of the yeast did it .. but it was not good … looks like it overflowed with butter and it was not enough flour ? .. HELP please ! I want to make this for my mother in law… 🙁
Jewls
mmartinez
Hello Jewls,
Baking is a similar to chemistry if you change some of the ingredients you won't get the same results. Please follow the recipe as directed and you will have beautiful muffins.
Happy Baking!
Carolina Rojano
🙂
ttt sonalli
Las hice y quedaron riquísimas, mejor que en la panadería y la mejor receta, Gracias.
Diana Jaen
Mely, las hice siguiendo la receta pero quedaron muy planas. Que puedo estar haciendo mal?
mmartinez
Hola Diana,
Pueden ser varias cosas, que la levadura o el polvo de hornear ya no estuvieran frescos, que el horno no estaba a la temperatura adecuada, que se haya abierto el horno mientras se horneaban. Trata de prepararlas de nuevo, es una receta muy sencilla y a veces no nos percatamos que algo no este del todo bien al prepararlas.
saludos!
Carolina Rojano
Muchas gracias por ésta super receta de mantecadas, las amo! Todas tus recetas y fotografías son maravillosas!
Lucy
La levadura instantánea la tengo que activar o solo se le pone seca con los demás ingredientes
mmartinez
Hola Lucy,
Solo se le pone seca como indica las instrucciones. Happy baking!
Claudia
Followed your exact recipe and they taste sooo good.Thank you
mmartinez
Hello Claudia,
I’m so glad you like them! Happy baking and provecho!
Betty Cruz
Unfortunately I have gluten sensitivity so I’d have to substitute the AP flour for GF flour, cross my fingers they come out good!
mmartinez
Hello Betty,
I hope it comes out ok for you. Happy cooking!
JIM POWELL
Love the recipes. Easy to follow
mmartinez
Hello Jim,
Thank you for trying the recipes and for stopping by. Happy cooking! Mely
Prema
If I don’t have yeast,can I use extra baking powder & how much
mmartinez
Hello Prema,
I had never try making them without the yeast. But you are welcome to try adding more baking powder.
Colleen
Yummy! These look like treats my Grandmom used to buy at a Spanish bakery. I can’t wait to bake these for her.
mmartinez
Hello Collen,
I hope you make them soon, they are easy and quick to prepare.
Melanie
I was wondering if you can use a stand mixer, or if it has to be done by hand? My whisk broke and I haven’t replaced it yet.
mmartinez
Hello Melanie,
I had never used my stand mixer to make mantecadas because they are really easy and quick to make. But, you can absolutely use it if you want to, especially if you are making a large quantity.
Micaela
I just made these they look lovely and taste omg like the bakery back home in Texas. Live in CT haven’t found the bakery with similar taste. Followed to the t the recipe outstanding and easy to do. Had to adjust my oven time like in a comment before since I know my oven already timing is different on every recipes I make just have to keep an eye on it.love them Thank you Mel😋
mmartinez
Hello Micaela,
Thank you for trying the recipe for Mantecadas. Now, you have to try the recipe for Bread Pudding, it is another great hit with our readers.
Ivonne
Acabo de hacer la receta con mi niña de 8 años.. No puedo esperar a q salga del oven.. Gracias x compartir esta rica receta!! 😊😊
mmartinez
Hola Ivonne,
Espero me compartas foto de las mantecadas en Instagram. Y de tu niña también.
Ivonne
Ya las provamos y si salieron Como yo esperaba! Solo q no tengo idea como compartir foto 🤔
mmartinez
Hola Ivonne, estas en instagram? Puedes publicar la foto en tu cuenta o en tus historias. Y agregas @mexicoinmykitchen de esa manera la puedo ver yo tambien.
Ivonne
Si la pubique la pudo ver?
mmartinez
Hola Ivonne,
No
Eva
Hoola se debe utilizar yeast
mmartinez
Hola Eva,
si, tienes que usar levadura y polvo de hornear. Yes, you have to use yeast and baking powder in this recipe.
Laura
Is it possible to make this into a loaf cake?
Mely Martínez
Hello Laura,
Yes, you can make it into a loaf cake.
Monica
I’m actually very excited I came across this recipe. My grandmother who is 93 now, used to make this for the family. My grandfather who was blind had the the recipe in his head and would tell her how to make them. Unfortunately once he passed around 25 years ago, she hasn’t been able to make them.
Now I get to try them, thank you!
Eva
Hoola ya las hice hoy salieron riquisimas muy contenta graciss x la receta. Estoy tratando de ponerla en Instagram
mmartinez
Hola Eva,
Que bueno que te gustaron. Saludos!
Ruth
Mely, quiero hacer más cantidad de mantecadas. Se pueden doblar las cantidades para tener las mezcla necesaria o será demasiada levadura y tendrán un sabor desagradable
mmartinez
Hola Ruth,
Si, se puden doblar las cantidades para hacer más mantecadas. De hecho en el blog tenemos la opciones de que cambien la cantidad que quieres hacer y te cambia cuanto necesitas.
Michelle
Is it ok to bake these at a lower temp? They are yummy but the bottoms are way to dark.
mmartinez
Hello Michelle,
You can, but then the mantecadas will take longer to bake and I’m not sure they will raise the same. Do you have an oven thermometer installed in your oven to see it is working properly? They are pretty cheap, around 4 dollars, just to check the oven temperature.
Candace
I’m really glad I found this recipe. I have never tried mantecadas before, but I was surfing around Pinterest and saw the recipe. It looked pretty easy so I thought I would give it a try. The recipe was simple and clear, and I followed it exactly. I used just the vanilla extract, but I think it would have been amazing with the orange extract and zest. Not too much effort was involved. I think my cupcake pan must be a little smaller than yours because I got 8 instead of 6. Either way, the oven time and temp were just right. The muffins were Perfectly risen and perfectly golden. When we tried them they were moist and fluffy. My husband had trouble believing they didn’t have cornmeal though, he really thought they were a corn muffin. These were super delicious. Not too sweet, not too dense. My husband told me that these are his new favorite recipe and asked me to make them again tomorrow. Thank you for posting this!
mmartinez
Hello Candace,
Thank you for trying the Mantecadas recipe. I’m so glad your husband like them.
Olga
La mejor receta, gracias por publicarla, me trae recuerdos de cuando era pequeña .
mmartinez
Hello Olga,
So glad to know you like it and that it remains you fo your childhood. Muchas gracias por probar la receta. Que gusto saber que te trajo bonitas memorias. Saludos!
Lory
Excellent pan! Came out perfect and tastes like Mexico.
Mely Martínez
Hello Lory,
Thank you for trying the mantecadas recipe. Happy baking!
Aileen
Thank you for the recipe. I would like to try it. Can I replace the oil for butter? If I can, what is the measurement? How many tablespoons of butter?
Mely Martínez
Hello Eileen,
I think you can, If you do, then use one stick of butter (equals 1/2 cup). Let me know how does it turn out.
Crescencio Cruz
Great mantecadas, muchas gracias por la receta