In the last few years there have appeared various excellent packaged pastries in convenience stores that, unlike most, are not covered in thick, cheap icing. Cinnamon rolls and little loaves of bread tapered like a croissant but not curved come to mind. Their flavor is wonderful and they are a splendid treat.
All the ones I have seen have brand names that sound Hispanic to me. Some are described with a Spanish word followed by an English term in parentheses.
Is it more common in Hispanic cooking, or Hispanic factory-produced packaged foods, that pastries have less sugar and especially less of that horrible greasy icing, the awful syrup, and the candied coverings that predominate in the major brands we’ve seen for a long time like Hostess, Tasty Kake, Entenmanns, Little Debbie?
Not sure what to hope for, as they are difficult to resist.
I would say it is a not-American style of cooking; Hispanics definitely do find American sweets and pastries to be more similar to “shapely, colored lumps of sugar with sugar, and some added sugar” than to actual food, but I’ve heard the same from Italians, Armenians, Hungarians… I’ve had pastries from kosher bakeries in the US which were identical to Spanish ones (we probably got the recipe from each other), that is, very “un-American” in that they actually tasted of someting other than sugar and frosting.
Oh, very definitely Hispanic and non-American. Even in places where you’d think that the desserts (pre-packaged or at restaurants/bakeries) would be decadent (say, Germany or France) have a lot less richness to them than in the USA.
The origins of what you call American pastries just migrated here like what you call Hispanic did. There are less sugary breakfast rolls from other ethnic origins out there too.
Oh, French bread IS totally decadent. I mean, I’m not a bread person, but those six months living in France, next building to a baker’s, oh my Gawd… But yeah, those amazing, incredible, this ought’a be illegal if it ain’t a sin breads and cakes tasted nothing like their American cousins. They had actual textures, too, as in “more than one in a single item”! Damn, now I want me some French bread…
They’re doing something right. I didn’t get a chance to have a whole lot of bread in France (but OMFG the duck [not goose] fois gras is worth flying back there for). But as for bread: In the States, there’s this conception that gas station or convenience store sandwiches are crap (it’s mostly true). Somewhere in northern France, though, we stopped at a service plaza (basically, a gas station in my book), and I had a simple farmer’s sandwich ordered from behind glass, made with a French baguette, and to this day, I can say I’ve never had a better sandwich in my life, anywhere.
I just had pan dulce at lunch today. Those conchas (the shell-looking breads) are not only un-sweet, they’re flavorless, dry, and totally consumed out of proportion to their worth.
I’ve never had pastries from a non-kosher bakery, so I lack a point of reference, but I’m curious as to what stuff you thought was like Spanish baked goods.
Pretty much the sweetest thing I’ve seen at a Mexican bakery is a churro. But they’re still less sweet than, say, a zebra cake.
My favorite Mexican pastry (wish I could remember the name of it) is a brownish shiny bread with a sweetish cheese filling. It’s like a cheese danish basically, but shaped differently, less sweet, and much more delicious.
In Mexico, you get those at churro stands, not at bakeries. I’m not sure where you get those in the USA. I’ve only ever heard references to “churros” in the USA on “American Dad.”
Are you sure it’s a pastry? As in, some type of breakfast or dessert bread? I ask because it sounds like something I don’t know the name of either, but I wish to God that I did. It’s usually served as part of a bread basket for full meals, kind of like an egg-bread (brioche) with some cheese/butter filling. Damn, I want to make some.
I’m talking about Mexican bakeries that make Mexican pastries in the United States. The particular one I’m referencing was on the outskirts of a college town in Indiana. They sold many pastries, as well as churros. And everyone there called them churros. I grew up in a white-bread city in Indiana (though a Latino area wasn’t too far away) and we called churros churros. We could get them at the mall sometimes.
I guess I’m not understanding where your misunderstanding is coming from. Are churros not a common food in your geographical location?
Sounds like a quesadilla. Most people are familiar with Mexican quesadillas, which are grilled burritos filled with meet and cheese. But a Central American quesadilla is completely different - it’s like a cheese flavored pound cake. Like this or this.
Misunderstanding? I definitely know what churros are, but I’ve never encountered them anywhere in the United States, except in the Mexican Town area of Detroit and in Old Town in San Diego (which is very Mexican). In my area (SE Michigan) they’re definitely an uncommon food in my geographical area. In Mexico they’re obviously not uncommon at all, except in my present neighborhood where the only ethnic stuff allowed Kosher. They don’t come from bakeries here, though, is all I meant.
Gotcha. Yeah churros are apparently remarkably common in Northwest Indiana. But again there was a pretty large Hispanic population not far from my town, which would likely explain it.
