Mexican Chocolate King Cake by Lucia
Lucía (loo-see-ah) is a small batch, from-scratch bakery that began doing popups in the Lafayette, Louisiana downtown area in late 2020. They started by selling brioche-stuffed donuts (bombolonis) and then slowly began adding laminated pastries to the rotational menu. They now concentrate on viennoise-style baking, a form of pastry made famous in France with origins in Vienna, Austria. The Viennois-style involves leavened enriched dough that is slightly sweet which then makes the base for your favorite croissant and brioche-style pastries, including this King Cake!
Ingredients & Instructions
For the Dough:
140g water
140g milk (warm)
55g sugar
12g salt
40g room temp butter
10g active dry yeast
- Activate the yeast in 140g warm milk for about 5-10 minutes.
- Once activated, add to a mixing bowl with the water, and add the remaining ingredients.
- Mix on low for 5 minutes to incorporate the ingredients, then turn on high until you can stretch the dough into a windowpane (about 10 min)
- Dump the dough onto a work surface, form it into a ball, and return it to the bowl. Let it cold ferment in the refrigerator overnight (this improves flavor, and also makes working with the dough a lot easier).
For the Mexican Chocolate Pastry Cream:
300g milk
5g vanilla extract
8g Dutch process cacao powder
3 egg yolks
1 egg
13g corn starch
3g salt
120g semisweet chocolate chips
36g diced butter
- In a heavy-bottom pot, add all ingredients except the semisweet chocolate and diced butter.
- On medium heat, cook the milk mixture constantly stirring with a rubber spatula, making sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
- When the mixture has a thick texture similar to pudding, remove from heat and then whisk in (or use an immersion blender) the butter and semisweet chocolate until well mixed.
- Place in a shallow pan and cover the surface of the pastry cream with plastic film to keep it from forming a skin. Refrigerate overnight.
For the King Cake Glaze: Whisk all ingredients until well combined.
600g confectioners sugar
110g water
1 tsp vanilla extract
The Build:
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out into a rectangle about 14 x 24 inches.
- Spread the Mexican Chocolate Pastry Cream over the dough as you would when making cinnamon rolls.
- Roll the dough into a tube and tuck one end under the other.
- Proof for about 2 hrs or until doubled in size.
- Bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Once baked, let the king cake cool before topping it with the glaze.
- For the Mardi Gras colors, sprinkle the glaze with purple, gold and green sanding sugar.
Posted on February 07 2024