More than any other dish, capirotada is a dessert that is identified as the most traditional of Mexican cuisine during the Lent season.
Many Hispanics have memories of their grandmothers or their mothers preparing this dessert, which is usually eaten between Ash Wednesday and Easter.
It is a bread pudding bathed in a sweet liquid, which can be made with milk or water, sweetened with sugar or piloncillo and other ingredients such as cinnamon, and then baked with nuts, peanuts, raisins, and cheese.
Pilar Zazueta, historian at the University of Texas at Austin, said that this is a dessert with influences from Arab and Spanish culture. Mexican elements were later added, and the Catholic church gave it religious meaning.
“In this dish, the bread represents the body of Christ (as bread in the Eucharist), the sweet honey represents the blood of Christ (as wine in the Eucharist), the raisins and nuts the nails of the cross, the cinnamon sticks represent the wood of the cross, and the cheese represents the shroud,” Zazueta said.
Zazueta explained that in Spain the capirotada was not a dessert, but a pudding made with chicken, almonds, and aromatic herbs. But the dish had a cultural adaptation in Mexico during the colonial times, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
“Mexico has the climate to produce sugar cane, not so Spain,” Zazueta said. “Sugar and piloncillo were cheaper in Mexico, and that’s why it began to be used in recipes.”
Capirotada is served hot or cold, depending on the consumer, and can be accompanied with coffee, milk, or hot chocolate.
In Dallas, you can buy capirotada on Fridays during Lent in most Mexican restaurants that offer Lent dishes, like El Ranchito, at 610 Jefferson Blvd., or Mexico Lindo, at 7515 E. Grand Ave., both in Dallas.
Capirotada
5 bread rolls (birotes or teleras) cut into thick slices (around 1-inch wide)
4 cups water or milk
2 cups piloncillo or brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole cloves
Nuts, raisins, and/or unsalted peanuts
Fresh cheese or cotija cheese
Sweet colored sprinkles
Heat oven to 350 F.
Fry the bread on both sides. You can use lard or butter or simply toast the bread without any fat. Set aside.
Heat the water or milk and add the piloncillo or brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Let it boil for 7-10 minutes, then remove it from the heat.
In an baking dish, place a layer of bread, bathe it with a little of the sweet liquid, and add raisins, nuts, and/or peanuts and cheese to taste. A layer of bread is placed again and then another layer of the other ingredients, and so on.
In the end, the remaining liquid is poured over the bread.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the liquid is consumed and the bread has a pudding consistency.
It can be served hot or cold. In the end, you can add colored sprinkles to garnish.
Source: Alejandrino Fernández, head chef at El Ranchito restaurant in Oak Cliff
