This will be an article with confessions. Several of them. Because I’m writing about pan dulce, those soft and puffy (or crisp and crunchy) traditional Mexican what-we-would-call pastries, and my sometimes desperate search for fresh-baked ones.

What that entails (confession #1) is driving up and down small neighborhood streets at around four in the afternoon looking for vendors selling pan dulce from their converted three-wheeled bikes. I’ve been known to sit on certain street corners for 30 minutes or more, waiting. I’ve also been known to leave said area and come back repeatedly over an embarrassingly short period of time. And, I’ve been known to slowly cruise new neighborhoods, convinced that a pan vendor will appear if I just believe.

To enjoy pan dulce – really enjoy it – one must look beyond what’s available at the big grocery stores. I feel only pity for those poor pastries, sitting for who-knows-how-long in the open air, losing their erotic soft, sweet tenderness. They’re a poor excuse for pan dulce and once you’re tried a feathery-soft conchita or nino en vuelto, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Most Mazatlecos enjoy pan dulce in the late afternoon or early evening, with milk or hot chocolate. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a vendor in the morning, when we gringos are more inclined to want these sorts of pastries – say, with our coffee. True, you can find pan dulce at local panaderias and the Central Mercado, and if you go early enough they’ll still have that Pillsbury dough boy soft & fresh feel about ‘em. Some of us (confession #2) will admit to enjoying them at almost any time of day – providing they’re fresh. It’s just so hard to say no.

More often than I like to admit, at the end of the day when my mind wanders away from the computer, that’s where it goes: to a tray of just-out-of-the-oven, still-warm novias, conchitas and picónes, aromatic with cinnamon and sugar. There’s no getting around the fact that we’re talking about white flour and sugar; there’s not much nutritional value. What can I say? We all choose our “guilty pleasures” – and if I need to feel guilty for the pleasure of pan dulce, then so be it.

Here, some of the types of pan dulce you’ll find in Mazatlán. Cost is 4 or 5 pesos each.

Nino en vuelto – jam-filled sponge cake, like a jelly roll
Novia – domed, rolled cinnamon-sugar pastry
Canas – open-ended, fruit-filled rolled pastry
Encanelado – trapezoidal cinnamon-sugar goodness
Coliflur - a vanilla cupcake with a “bumpy” top (like the vegetable)
Picón – round cake with a bubbly mass of cooked sugar on top
Conchitas - fluffy pillows topped with a thick striped layer of sugar and a touch of cinnamon
Donas - the ever-present donuts, replete with icing, sprinkles, etc.
Ciudadela - crispy-sweet pastry drizzled with sugar syrup, in various shapes, including Napoleons, shaped like the emperor’s hat
Elote - dense sweet bread baked in the shape of an ear of corn
Polverone – triangular cookie-like chocolate & vanilla pastry
Empanadas - small turnovers filled with pineapple or cajeta
Ojos de Buey – bright red, coconut-sprinkled balls of vanilla cake