How to make Mantecadas
Sweet bread 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
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 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.
- 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
- 2 Bowls whisk, measuring cups and spoons, muffin paper liners, muffin pan, pitcher or a ladle to pour the batter.
-
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.
*First and foremost, I will suggest that you buy a small kitchen scale, they are not that expensive, and are an essential tool for bread making. Baking is more like a science, where in order to have excellent results, your ingredients have to be measure using a reliable tool like a scale.
**Every baker chooses the flavoring of their choice. It could be vanilla, orange, cinnamon or almond.
¡Buen provecho!
Mely,
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Easy Avocado Ice Cream, No Ice Cream Maker Needed
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!
Mely, siempre los he conocido como quequis. Bimbo les puso el nombre de mantecadas, pero aquī son quequis.
these look amazing love Mexican breads
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
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!
Hello, Mely!
What's 'AP' flour? Is it a brand or are you referring to pastry flour which is lighter than regular flour?
Hello!
AP stand for All purpose flour. I will add a note to the recipe, that way everyone can understand it. Thanks!
We look forward to trying these soon, Mely.
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.
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!
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 🙂
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!
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!!!
Did your muffins turned out dark? My looks burnt. I followed your substitution because that's what I had on hand.
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.
Las mantecas siempre me han encantado y en especial con un buen cafe.
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
The sugar and flour both say 125 grams but the measurement in the parenthesis is different, which is correct?
Hello,
Sugar is heavier that flour. The same amount of flour weight less than sugar. For example: one cup of flour weights 125 grams, and 1 cup of granulated sugar weights 200 grams.
Happy baking!
Can the milk in this recipe be substituted with almond or soy milk?
Hello Taylor,
I think you can substitute almond or soy milk in this recipe, and still have a great end result.
Happy baking!
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.
Hello,
Even though the flour and sugar needed are 125 grams each, they don't have the same volume.
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!
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:)
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!
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!)
its midnite and just finishing up a batch of 12.super easy and yummy, thanks 🙂
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
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
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!
🙂
Las hice y quedaron riquísimas, mejor que en la panadería y la mejor receta, Gracias.
Mely, las hice siguiendo la receta pero quedaron muy planas. Que puedo estar haciendo mal?
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!
Muchas gracias por ésta super receta de mantecadas, las amo! Todas tus recetas y fotografías son maravillosas!
La levadura instantánea la tengo que activar o solo se le pone seca con los demás ingredientes
Hola Lucy,
Solo se le pone seca como indica las instrucciones. Happy baking!
Followed your exact recipe and they taste sooo good.Thank you
Hello Claudia,
I’m so glad you like them! Happy baking and provecho!
Unfortunately I have gluten sensitivity so I’d have to substitute the AP flour for GF flour, cross my fingers they come out good!
Hello Betty,
I hope it comes out ok for you. Happy cooking!