Whole Wheat Mexican Bolillos

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In honor of today being Cinco de Mayo, and our #TwelveLoaves posting schedule falls on the first Tuesday of every month, naturally, the theme for this month is Mexican bread.

Since I’m not of Mexican descent (not that you need to be to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, mind you), I wasn’t all that familiar with Mexican yeast bread. Thankfully for me, Heather of Girlichef came to my rescue and listed a whole bunch of Mexican bread that were potential options to fill this month’s theme. I chose bolillos which are a Mexican yeast roll that is commonly used for making sandwiches.

The recipe I found (and tweaked) for bolillos is from a site called What’s Cooking Mexico and I also watched a video on YouTube from a site called Married to a Mexican to learn the proper shaping technique. I’ll admit that my shaping still needs work, but the taste is absolutely delicious.

I decided to add whole wheat flour to the recipe I’d found online, and I also substituted coconut palm sugar for the granulated sugar since I’m trying to be mindful of staying away from white sugar and completely white flour products. That said, if you want to make these Mexican sandwich rolls but don’t have whole wheat flour or coconut palm sugar on hand, by all means, use 6 cups of all-purpose white flour and granulated sugar in place of the coconut palm sugar. I’ll never know.

Since I’d never made bolillos before, I was thrilled with the taste and the results. For those of you who might be intimidated by making homemade yeast bread and rolls, let me assure you how easy this recipe is to make. So easy in fact that anyone can do it, and be completely successful at it too.

WHOLE WHEAT MEXICAN BOLILLOS   {PRINT THIS RECIPE}
Yield:  16 rolls        Prep Time:  2½ hours (includes rise time)     Bake Time: 40 minutes

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees) Warm, not hot, out of the tap.
1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons coconut palm sugar
1 package active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup water
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out
3 cups whole wheat flour
olive oil spray
For the glaze:
1½ teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup cold water

-In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1 cup warm water. Stir in the sugar and allow the yeast to sit and get foamy (approximately 10 minutes).

-Meanwhile, medium bowl microwave 1 cup water, salt, and butter until warm and the butter is melted. Combine the foamy yeast mixture along with the butter, salt, and water mixture in a large bowl (I used the bowl of my stand mixer).

-Using a wooden spoon (or the dough hook) add in 3 cups of all-purpose flour and stir until well blended. Add in the remaining whole wheat flour and knead with the dough hook (or switch to hand kneading) until the dough comes together into a smooth and elastic dough.

-Place the kneaded dough into a bowl that has been sprayed with olive oil and lightly spray the top of the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk (approximately 1 to 1½ hours).

-Punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a log and divide it into two equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough out into an approximate 8″ log and divide each log into 8 equal pieces. Do the same with the second half.

-Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then form each ball into a football-shaped roll (fatter in the middle and then tapered at both ends). Place the rolls onto 2 baking sheets (8 per sheets) that have been liberally sprayed with olive oil spray, making sure to leave space between each roll for rising.

-Place the baking sheets in a warm, draft-free place for the rolls to rise until doubled (approximately 45 minutes). Use a sharp paring knife to gently cut slits into each roll, offset from the center.

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-In a small saucepan, add the cornstarch to 1 cup of cold water, Bring the mixture to a simmer to thicken. Cool slightly and brush each roll liberally with the cornstarch glaze.

-Bake the bolillos in a preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the rolls are a lovely golden brown. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Are you interested in seeing more Mexican bread from the #TwelveLoaves family of bakers? Good! Me too. Please click on the links below and feast your eyes on all the bread we’ve baked for you in order to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I promise they’ll all be recipes to wet your whistle!

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and runs smoothly with the help of Heather of girlichef, and the rest of our fabulous bakers.

Our host this month is Heather from girlichef, and our theme is Mexican Breads. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board, or check out last month’s mouthwatering selection of #TwelveLoaves Cheese Breads!

Bolillos from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Cemitas from The Bread She Bakes
Conchas de Pan Dulce from Cake Duchess
Conchas (Mexican Sweet Bread) from Hostess At Heart
Mexican Cemitas from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
Pan de Muerto from A Shaggy Dough Story
Teleras (Flat Bread Rolls) from girlichef
Whole Wheat Mexican Bolillos from Kudos Kitchen By Renee

If you’d like to bake along with us this month, share your Mexican Bread using hashtag #TwelveLoaves!

At this time I’d like to give a quick shout-out to Heather of Girlichef for all her hard work in coordinating this month’s theme. As fate would have it, just today I completed this apron for Heather with her blog’s logo. I promise it wasn’t planned in order to show her apron on this particular post, it was just a lucky coincidence.

If ever you’re interested in ordering your own custom logo apron, or any other design for that matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me.