PAN DULCE!
(MEXICAN PASTRY)
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Throughout the United States many people awaken each morning with one thing in mind: Pan Dulce!  The wide variety of pastries known collectively as Pan Dulce (literally “sweet bread.”) can be found, freshly baked, on sale in panaderias (bakeries ) from Los Angeles, California to Brooklyn, New York,  from San Antonio, Texas  to Chicago, Illinois and from Yakima, Washington to Tucson, Arizona. In some panaderias, the customer uses metal tongs to select his or her particular preference in pan dulce, while at other bakeries, the behind-the-counter servers will take the order and place the selections in a bag for the customer. Pan dulce can also be bought pre-packaged in cellophane at supermarkets and corner stores. Mexican pan dulce dates back to the Spanish conquest, when Spaniards introduced their pastry traditions to the New World. Later Mexican bakers incorporated indigenous ingredients and created new recipes.  In the 1860s, the French intervention into Mexico brought with it the influence of French pastry-making. Today, pan dulce is a creative amalgam of all of these baking styles. The result is literally hundreds of variations on a theme. LATINOPIA wondered what do you call this and that sweet bread? Here are names for some of the most common varieties of Mexican pan dulce. So next time you buy pan dulce, instead of saying, “give me one of those,” you’ll be able to say,  “give me a conchita blanca, a polvoron or ojos de buey.”

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COMING SOON: MORE PAN DULCE SELECTIONS!