Mexican Conchas

When I was little (maybe 8 or 10) there was a Sesame Street episode about a girl who went to her Tio's bakery and made pan dulce. Her favorite was the concha and I thought it looked delicious! Since then I have always wanted to eat a concha but didn't know where to buy one. For the first time I actually made some and they did not disappoint!

I got the delicious recipe from Nicole Reyna's wonderful blog Flan & Apple Pie.

I'll re-post her recipe (giving her full credit!)

Some of my personal notes from making these are as follows:
1. Make this dough the night before! Sometimes I don't read all the instructions until the day I want to make something and then realize I should have made it the night before.
2. I found it hard to use a tortilla press when forming the sugar tops. I just patted them out in my hand and made the shell marks with the back of a butter knife.
3. Follow ALL the steps. While mixing the dough the ingredients go in a totally different order than I was use too but I followed it exactly and they turned out great.
4. She says to mix about 1 minute after adding things but with the sugar I mixed longer until I couldn't hear the granules just being pushed around the bowl.

I hope you have so much fun making AND eating these conchas!

*All the pictures are of my own conchas. Here is the actual Sesame Street episode that inspired me many years ago!

Dough (Makes 16 conchas)

3 ¾ – 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour

1 1/8 tsp (7 g) salt

2 ¾ tsp (12 g) bread machine (not active dry) yeast

1 cup whole milk

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract (add to the milk)

2 eggs

1/3 cup (90 g) granulated sugar

6 TBSP unsalted butter, softened

2 TBSP (30 g) pork lard or vegetable shortening

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together flour, salt, and yeast for 1 minute on medium speed.

Add 1 egg and half of the milk/vanilla and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the remaining egg and milk/vanilla and mix on medium speed for an additional minute.

Add the sugar and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Finally, add the softened butter and lard/shortening and mix on medium-high speed for 5-7 minutes.

The dough will be rather sticky and difficult to work with. Refrain from adding any flour as it will dry out the dough. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and gather the dough to the center to form a ball.

Pour about 2 tsp of vegetable oil (I used avocado oil.) in a clean, large bowl. Rub the oil around the bottom and sides of the bowl. Carefully gather the concha dough and place it in the oiled bowl. Flip the dough over so that the oiled side is facing up. The entire ball of dough should be covered with a thin layer of oil. This will prevent the dough from drying out.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap in place in the refrigerator to rise. Leave in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

___

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Lightly flour your work surface and place the ball of dough in the middle. Punch it down.

Divide the dough into 16 equal portions. Each ball will weigh approximately 60-65 g.

Take a small ball of dough in one hand and place on a lightly floured surface. Cup your hand over the dough and using a circular motion, roll the dough into a smooth ball. [You can watch this video clip to see what I’m talking about.] Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet seam side down. Repeat with remaining dough. You will need to use two baking sheets. Place 8 conchas on one and 8 on another. They conchas expand quite a bit during rising and baking, so be sure to leave enough room in between each one.

Let the conchas rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Sugar Topping (Makes about 14 servings)

3/4 cup (100 g) all-purpose flour

1 cup (100 g) powdered sugar

6 TBSP unsalted butter, softened

1 TBSP vegetable shortening

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp baking powder

5-7 drops of pink food coloring (I used Americolor gel paste.)

1 tsp cocoa powder

2 TBSP butter

While the conchas are rising, create the sugar topping. Place the first 6 ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the ingredients form a ball of soft dough.

Divide the sugar topping into two balls. One ball will remain vanilla; you can set this to the side. Divide the remaining ball of topping into two. Place one of these balls back into the stand mixer and add 5-7 drops of pink food coloring. Mix on medium speed until the color is completely incorporated. Remove the ball of pink dough and place to the side. Place the remaining ball of topping into the mixer. Add 1 tsp of cocoa powder. Mix on medium speed until the cocoa is completely incorporated.

Divide the ball of vanilla topping into 8 equal parts. Divide the ball of pink topping into 4 equal parts, and divide the ball of chocolate topping into 4 equal parts. You will have 16 balls of topping total. Using a tortilla press and two pieces of plastic grocery bag (or using your hands), flatten each ball of sugar topping into a 2.5-3” disc. Lightly flour a concha cutter and press into the flattened topping. Press hard enough to make a mark, but don’t cut through the topping! If you don’t have a concha cutter, you can use a knife to make the shell marks.

Melt 2 TBSP of butter in the microwave. Lightly brush the butter on top of each concha. Carefully place the stamped topping on the buttered concha. Do NOT press down or you will deflate the concha. Repeat with the remaining topping and conchas.**

Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 20-22 minutes. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.

Hooded Bath Towel

     

 
     The hooded bath towel first came into my life when I was born. My mother received one as a baby gift when she was expecting me. She used the original as a guide to make more, and as tradition now gives a hooded bath towel for baby gifts.

      I have carried on the tradition and make hooded bath towels for all my friends having babies. I love picking different themes for the towels depending on gender or what the mothers like.

     I love these hooded bath towels because they are made from sturdy towels and they're really big so they last kids a long time.

     Here is a picture of my little guy in his hooded towel made by his Grammy.

     I took a lot of pictures of each step so I hope it is easy to follow. Once you've made your own hooded bath towel post a picture, I'd love to see your creations.

      Happy Sewing!


Hood:

*** If you want to put any ribbon on the hood sew that on first before proceeding.

1. Fold the hand towel length wise, right sides together.

2. Start from the side without the tag and  measure 10.5 inches and pin in at least 3 spots. Cut along the pins and then sew leaving a 1/2 inch allowance (from the needle).

3. Flip the hood right side out and fold so the top comes to a point. Sew back and forth a couple inches from the top to form a triangle.

Now the hood is done!

Body of the Towel:

*** Any ribbon embellishes can be sewn on before or after it doesn't matter.

1. Fold the towel in half width wise, wrong sides together. Make sure the tag is on the inside bottom.

2. Place a pin at the center crease of the fold. Measure 3/4 inch from the center fold and place a pin on both sides.

3. Place another pin 2 1/2 inches out from the one you just placed.

4. Fold back and forth twice and pin in place. Do this on both sides. Match the ends of the towel together to make sure everything is center. (I had to redo this one.)

Below is an example of it not matching up very well. The second picture down I redid it and then it matched up much better.

5. Sew all of this together, doubling back on the ends where it is the thickest (I placed pins in the second picture down to show where to double back.)

Now the body of the towel is done!

Attaching Hood & Finishing Touches:

1. Lay out the hood and towel. Match the middles together and pin.

2. Fold the towel in half to see if the edges of the hood match up. You may have to re adjust. 
(In the picture my edges didn't match the first time so I had to make a small adjustment. If the sides don't match perfectly I usually just make a small adjustment when I go to sew by pulling one side further up instead of going back and re-pinning the whole thing.)

3. Sew the hood onto the body of the towel. Double back on the edges to insure a secure hold.

4. Now you can add any other embellishments you want. I always put something on the very top of the hood like a button or ribbon. 

This towel I did for a friend having a little boy. Have fun with finding different ribbons, buttons or even iron-on decals to personalize your hooded bath towel.

Here are some more pictures of other towels I've made over the years.

DIY Fabric Ice Pack

My mom worked at a daycare for a while and they always kept bean bags or rice bags in the freezer to give to the kids when they got hurt.

I started this with my little guy from day one so he would get used to having me treat his cuts, bumps and scrapes.

I used to have rice bag ice packs where I placed the rice directing into the fabric and sewed it in. But when my little guy gets scrapes or hits his mouth he can bleed, and then my fabric ice pack is covered in blood and un-washable because it's full of rice.

 Also this old ice pack could be put in unsavory places such as stinky feet and then be used the next day on a chin injury. Kind of grossing me out, just saying.

Here is my New and Improved ice pack!

This pattern allows for your rice to be separate and safe in a plastic zip bag (I chose snack size). The outside fabric part is removable and washable for those nasty falls that result in bloody knees, elbows, lips, etc.

He absolutely loves Batman right now so I made some new ice packs with some Batman fabric. This is a sewing project but I'll try and give you some non-sewing tips as well.


First you'll want to make your pattern. I used a piece of construction paper that I cut to measure 6 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches. (If you want more seam allowance bump it up to 7x8 inches)
Pin this pattern to your fabric and cut it out.

Next you'll want to hem the short ends. If you don't have a sewing machine, you can get some pinking sheers and cut the short ends to help with fraying.

Get your ruler or measuring tape and mark the long ends with a pin at 2 inches and 5 inches on both sides.

 Fold your fabric on the pins, right sides together.

Put pins on top to hold the fold in place. You can also use an iron in this case to make the fold stay.

Fold both sides over so they're overlapping, and pin in place.

Sew these sides. Then flip your ice pack right side out. If you don't want to sew use your pinking sheers on the long sides and then hot glue the sides together. (I haven't tried the hot glue so I'm not sure how well it holds up under extreme cold.)

Measure a little over 2/3 cup of rice. Put the rice in a snack sized plastic zip bag. Get out as much air as you can.

 You could also use a sandwich sized zip bag and just fold over the excess bag.

Place the plastic bag inside your fabric ice pack and fold over the sides.

Place in the freezer for a soft, not too cold, cure to your little ones bumps and scrapes!