The Baker’s Wife?

A bow, an ear, a cow—or the baker’s wife? Mexican bread comes with playful, whimsical names, each piece carrying a bit of innocent humor from who knows when and who knows where. When I learned that a biscuit-shaped bread was called Pancha’s Eyes, I couldn’t decide if Pancha was a cow (Jorge, the baker at Panifico, thinks so) or the baker’s wife (I’m leaning that way). You decide!

Other names are easier to guess: “The Wedding Dress”, dusted with sparkling sugar, or the classic “Concha”, topped with a sugar shell pattern. Each name seems perfectly suited, as if a child had simply named them at will.

Edna Miggins owns Panifico, a Mexican bakery in San Antonio, TX. We photographed these breads at her bakery, and I asked Edna—an expert on Mexican breads—to write the names of each piece we captured. She graciously provided the details to accompany this post.

Thank you Edna.

“In the morning, there is nothing more sumptuous than the smell of baking bread as you drive to the local bakery.  It wraps around you like a loving embrace, the delicious smells making you hungry and also awakening memories of childhood.In Mexico, I remember that not only was that aroma present in the morning, but in the afternoons as well. We would walk to our neighborhood bakery every day at 6 o’clock because that’s when the bread would come out, fresh out of the oven.  Sometimes we would have to get there a little earlier, as there would be a line, everyone anticipating the bread’s ‘grand entrance.’ It was so beautiful hot, fresh donuts sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, ‘mantecadas’ with a nice, fluffy crown, flaky  pineapple ‘empanadas,’ and my favorite, moist and billowy ‘conchas.’  I could never decide between the one with white sugar paste or the chocolate sugar paste, even though I KNEW we would be back the next day and I could just choose the one I didn’t choose that day! They were so soft, your teeth would just sink into them.  We would make our purchases and home for our ‘merienda,’ a light meal or snack before dinner, where we would enjoy our bread with either milk or coffee. Bread makes me happy, I am not quite sure if it’s the memories or the comfort taste, maybe both”

By Edna Miggins.

Edna Miggins

Photography by Pauline Stevens shop @ Red Bird’s House