Pan Dulce

Mexican pan dulce (sweet bread) are great when they are freshly baked but immediately get stale thereafter. In looking at the ingredients on several online recipes, I thought that I could sub in/out some ingredients for my sweet challah recipe and end up with something that stayed softer a little longer. One of the popular pan dulce shapes is the concha (shell). This is my take on it. I made a half recipe of the challah dough, swapping butter for oil and milk for water. I also added cinnamon since I saw it included in most concha recipes. The topping is based on a recipe on allrecipes.com from MelissaAmador. I ran out of white sugar midway so I used some brown.

Conchas
(Adapted in part from Melissa Amador's recipe on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients for dough:
1 C milk, scalded and cooled
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1/3 C sugar, divided
1/4 C unsalted butter
1 egg + 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Ingredients for topping:
1/2 C unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Start by scalding milk on the stovetop. Then melt 1/4 C butter into heated milk and set aside to further cool. When milk is warm to the touch, pour it into a large bowl with yeast and 1 tsp of sugar. Wait about 10 minutes for yeast to activate and then add remaining sugar and eggs. Stir in flour and start to knead by hand or with an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Then add salt and continue kneading until smooth and elastic. If dough is too sticky, add more flour 1 Tbs at a time. Place in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn dough to coat then cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave undisturbed for at least 40 minutes (preferably an hour or so). After the initial rise, punch down dough, recover, and let rise again (about 20-30 minutes). In the meantime, start making the topping. Cream butter with sugars and vanilla. Add flour and mix well. Divide topping into 16 even sized pieces and roll each piece into a ball. After dough finishes it's second rise, divide dough in half, keeping one half covered while you work on shaping the balls. Further divide the dough into 8 pieces each (total of 16 pieces). Working quickly, take one ball of topping and flatten it in the palms of your hands to create a flat disc. Place over dough ball and gently press to keep it in place. The topping should cover most of the dough's surface. Continue for the remaining pieces, remembering to cover them as you go. Finally, using a toothpick create a shallow design on the top. Do not cut into dough (only cut through the topping). Make parallel lines for conchas. A criss-cross or spiral pattern also works. Let rise, covered, for at least 40 minutes. If preparing ahead of time, place them in the refrigerator overnight and bring them back to room temperature before baking in the morning. Bake for about 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven (375 degrees). Cool on wire racks.