Cinnamon Conchas — TBLSPOON

Mar 10

Mar 10 Cinnamon Conchas

This is one of the Extraordinary Bread recipes that King Arthur Baking has been featuring over the last week on all of their social media platforms. Extraordinary is the right word! They’re super fluffy sweet buns with a crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping, and are absolutely amazing fresh from the oven. So satisfying to sink your teeth into, I definitely recommend giving them a try!

Popular in Mexican bakeries, they get their name from the concha shell-like design drawn into the top, though I went with more of a clam shell design for my first try at them, straight lines being easier to draw. I believe that you can buy a special concha carver for a more pro-look, but I haven't investigated that yet. Vanilla and chocolate toppings are common and you'll even see a wide variety of colorful versions.

If these look appealing, I also recommend checking out Pineapple Buns or Bolo Bao, they’re very similar in style they come from the other side of the world!

See my tips for success below.

Cinnamon Conchas Recipe:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cinnamon-conchas-recipe

Yield:
10 large buns

Difficulty:
Moderate, the dough is sticky and the carving of the design takes at least patience if not a little skill!

Some tips for success:

The recipe works beautifully but it could use a few more details in my opinion, so here are a few tips to help you succeed.

It took 8 minutes of kneading on medium high speed with my Kitchen Aid mixer to reach proper gluten development. Do the windowpane test to be sure yours is ready.

The dough is very sticky, so I sprayed my counter with butter spray as well as my hands, this made it easy to shape the dough into balls.
Chilling the disks of cinnamon-sugar topping made it easy to peel off the parchment and place on top of the balls of dough. Just give them a little time to soften once you've placed them on top of each bun before you carve into them.
Learn from my mistake and spread your conchas out on 2 baking sheets (rotating pans top to bottom halfway through the bake) to give them plenty of room to rise. I baked mine on one sheet and they all baked together like hamburger buns!