Restaurant Recipe Reviews

Desserts are the best part of a meal no matter what country you are in, but in Mexico they are just a simple kind of lovely. There are no five layer cakes and artery clogging cheesecakes in traditional Mexican desserts. Nor are there triple chocolate tortes or little pastel colored fairy cakes. Mexican desserts are modest and just slightly sweetened, much like the majority of Mexican cuisine.

Bunuelos are a yeasted dough ball flavored with anise and deep fried. After the frying the ball is coated with a brown sugar, cinnamon and guava syrup. The result is a lot like a donut hole, but with the subtle essence of anise. Occasionally one will see bunuelos stuffed with cheese or yam, however that is not traditionally Mexican. Capirotada is the Mexican version of bread pudding. Toasted French bread is soaked in mulled syrup and coated with sugar, raisins, walnuts and cinnamon. Served warm, capirotada is a heavenly little dessert particularly enjoyed during the Lenten season.

Rosca de reyes or the kings’ ring is a dessert pastry originating in Spain but that is now a popular Mexican dish, particularly during the Christian celebration of Epiphany. The bread is ring shaped, and decorated with dried fruits and powdered guava on top. It is tradition in Mexico for a figure of the baby Jesus to be placed in the middle of the ring symbolizing the flight of Jesus from King Herod’s evil plan to kill all male babies. Therefore the reference to a ‘kings ring’ does not refer to royalty, but in fact to Jesus.

Moving away from pastries we find a Mexican confection of thickened syrup called cajeta. It is made from sweetened and caramelized milk. Goats milk is combined with guava or sugar cane juice and simmered until it thickens. Goats milk is the most common base, however it is not unusual to find fruit juices or cow’s milk as the base as well. Niciatole is a gelatin dessert made from ground maize and sugar and is sometimes used with cajeta.

Fried ice cream is often assumed to be of Mexican origin, however that is not so. It is actually an American invention that has been made popular in recent years in Mexican and Asian cultures. A scoop of hard ice cream is coated in egg white and cookie crumbs, then deep fried in oil very briefly. Mexican restaurants usually use cornflakes for the coating, and omit the egg as it does not always cook during the frying process.

Mexican desserts are as uncomplicated as the rest of the cuisine, but that is what makes them easy to identify with. A complicated meal that we could never think of cooking at home is nice if you appreciate each ingredient. However most foodies enjoy the simplicity of something they can recreate themselves. Mexican food definitely falls in that category.

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