Bake The Perfect Bread for Tortas at Home

Though I’d eaten hundreds of bolillos through the years, none had really caught my attention until I was shopping through the market in Uruapan, Michoacan, getting everything I needed for a cooking class the following day, and my nose led me to a simple set up an aisle away. The fellow behind the flat, woven-reed basket, in scruffy clothes dusted with flour, had a pile of golden, crusty, intensely aromatic bolillos, still warm from the oven. I bought one, tore off a bite and continued walking. About three chews in, I stopped. This was the most richly flavored, wonderfully chewy bolillo I’d ever encountered–something like a sour-dough demi-baguette from a fancy bakery. It was crusty, without simply shattering as many commercially made bolillos are, and the crumb offered tanginess and a little heft, nothing like the flavorless, cottony insides of so many of these ubiquitous Mexican rolls. That’s when I fell in love with bolillos. That’s what led me to open Xoco–and later, the collection of restaurants known as Tortazo–that celebrate Mexican tortas.

Here's the recipe!👇
https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/bo...

If you have any bread-baking experience, you’ll understand the method right away. I encourage you to let the dough rise overnight–just as the Uruapan baker explained to me he had–to develop a rich flavor (with the addition of a little sourdough starter, it’s even better). And, for the best volume, bake in a humid environment: that baker’s oven was made of moisture-holding earth and heated by wood; we suggest America’s Test Kitchen approach of spraying the bolillos with water and covering them with an upside-down aluminum roasting pan to trap moisture during the first few minutes in the oven.

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00:00 Rick's Intro to Bollilos
00:52 Making the Dough Batter
04:17 A Note on Active Yeast
05:06 Resting the Dough
06:33 Cutting the Dough
08:31 Finalizing the Shape
09:45 Slashing the Bolillos
11:19 Removing the Roasting Pan