Cookbook Club – Eat Mexico

In July, we used Lesley Tellez’s Eat Mexico for our Cookbook Club. I was really happy we were trying a type of cuisine our club hadn’t cooked yet. The book highlights dishes from Mexico City’s street stands, markets, and casual restaurants. You can see our full Mexico City food journey on my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish!

I wanted to try making a something outside of the usual Mexican dishes I’m accustomed to getting in the abundant Mexican restaurants and taco trucks of California. So I decided on Gorditas de Nata – Sweet Cream Biscuits.

The recipe calls for clotted cream, or provides a clotted cream substitute recipe that you can make yourself. I decided to make it myself, since it was simply a matter of whipping heavy cream, then folding in some sour cream and confectioners’ sugar.

I then stirred sugar and vanilla into the clotted cream. Side note here – the recipe called for 6 ounces of clotted cream, but the recipe that was provided for the clotted cream substitute made a good deal more than 6 ounces. I only realized this after using the full clotted cream recipe, and finding the dough way too wet when it came time to knead it, at which point I had to guesstimate on adding more of the dry ingredients to get the right consistency. This was in my opinion a terrible way to write this recipe, as I believe many people will make the same mistake I did, but even if they did realize they only needed 6 ounces, that would have been annoying to have to measure out.

In a separate bowl, I whisked together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

I gradually stirred the flour mixture into the clotted cream mixture, and then kneaded with my hands until a cohesive dough formed.

I divided the dough, rolled it out to 1/4 inch thick, and cut into rounds.

Then I cooked in an ungreased skillet over low heat, flipping until both sides were golden brown. I’ve never made biscuits on the stove before!

They looked and tasted more like mini pancakes than what I normally think of as a biscuit. Slightly sweet but not overwhelmingly so, they weren’t a dessert but weren’t really a savory dish either. Served with butter (or the leftover clotted cream if you made your own), I’d say they’re more of a snack.