Baking Holiday Mexican Piedras ( Rocks) Will Recycle Your Conchas

Holiday recipe for this traditional Mexican pastry recycles the classic Mexican "Concha," includes raisins and glowing pink icing.

HOUSTON, TX, US, December 3, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Holiday baking takes a unique turn with these Mexican piedras, (rocks). Crunchy and flavorful with raisins, they are great for holiday sharing and gifting, especially as we are forced to isolate, stay home, during these horrible Covid months.  So, give yourself a treat and bake these traditional Mexican piedras, delicious for breakfast or a midday snack. And Mexican piedras are a delightful way to recycle your left-over conchas. As a boy I used to dunk Mexican piedras in my milk. Now that I’m an adult, I dunk them in my coffee.

I remember and still get a kick out of the glowing pink icing.  When my mom would send me to the corner bakery to get pan de dulce (bakery sweets) on a Sunday morning, I’d grab one from the bag and nibble on it as I walked home.  I love that they are made with the left-over sweet Mexican bread called concha, even when it is stale after sitting out for days.

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook, “Don't Count The Tortillas: The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking,” published by Texas Tech University Press.

HOLIDAY RECIPE FOR MEXICAN PIEDRAS (ROCKS)
Ingredients  (makes 6)

4 cups fresh or stale concha crumbs, including the icing

1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour

2 1⁄4 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening with no trans-fats (see the ingredients list on the package)

1⁄4 cup raisins

1⁄2 cup water
For the Icing
:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

5 teaspoons water

A few drops of pink food coloring
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 ̊F.

2. Use a food processor to make fine breadcrumbs out of the concha bread.

3. In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour with the baking powder.

4. Add the vegetable shortening and combine.

5. Add the breadcrumbs, sugar, and raisins and mix together.

6. Add 1⁄4 cup of the water and mix. Then keep adding more water, a little at a time, until you have amalleable dough that feels like soft clay.

7. Make six oblong rock shapes, 3 inches by 5 inches and place on a greased cookie sheet.

8. Bake for 35 minutes; then cool.

9. In a bowl, about 6 inches in diameter, mix together the confectioners’ sugar, water, and pink food coloring. If the icing is too watery, add another teaspoon of confectioner’s sugar.

10. Turn each of the cooled piedras upside down to dip the top into the pink icing. Set them right side up to allow the icing to set; some of it will drip attractively down the sides.

Serve with coffee or milk.

Adan Medrano
JM Communications
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