MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For many people, there's no better way to wake up than to the sweet, buttery aroma of fresh-baked pan dulce - or Mexican sweet bread. Texas Public Radio's Marian Navarro went to a master class for home chefs and professional bakers alike, so they could learn to make the iconic pastries.
ALEX PENA: We'll be making conchas today. Concha blanca - a white concha - and concha de chocolate.
MARIAN NAVARRO, BYLINE: From sweet, sugary conchas - or seashells - to nubes - soft, airy buns that resemble fluffy clouds - people across the U.S. start their day having pan dulce in the morning. But it's more than just a sweet treat. It's a tie to people's culture and identity. Just walking into a panaderia and being welcomed with the aroma of butter, sugar and cinnamon is enough to awaken childhood memories.
RACHEL NAJERA: We used to buy pan dulce out of the trunk of an elderly man's vehicle when I was young. It stayed with me forever.
NAVARRO: That's home baker Rachel Najera, who grew up in a Texas border town. She was one of a dozen bakers who last month came together at San Antonio's The Bake Lab kitchens for a hands-on workshop series on all things pan dulce. Los Angeles-based chef Alex Pena led the workshop. He's the author of the cookbook "The Mexican Bakery," a comprehensive guide to Mexican pan dulce for home and professional bakers. Bakers in the class included Claudia Hurt, a pastry instructor at a community college in Corpus Christi.
(SOUNDBITE OF MIXERS WHIRRING)
NAVARRO: She and other bakers followed Chef Pena's instructions carefully. They portioned and shaped out the dough into small, fluffy balls before placing and stamping the iconic shell-like sugar topping on top.
PENA: What happens is when you pick it up, the dough kind of shrinks - right? - and it makes it easier to cover.
CLAUDIA HURT: Let's try it.
(SOUNDBITE OF PATTING DOUGH)
NAVARRO: Hurt grew up in Mexico, where pan dulce is a mainstay in households.
HURT: I would walk with my grandpa to the bakery every day to buy campechanas and all these different kinds of things - and conchas that I - now I can enjoy. So every time I make something like that at school, I tell them, oh, this reminds me of my grandpa.
NAVARRO: There isn't a concha emoji yet, but popularity of pan dulce continues to grow. A morning concha is more popular than a morning muffin in parts of the Southwest, and now even mainstream grocery stores are stocked with pan dulce to start the day. Hurt says people all over the country can take a bite of Mexican culture.
HURT: It's, I think, bringing people together. That's what I love about pan dulce.
NAVARRO: As the first batch of homemade conchas go into the oven, bakers in the class continue topping their dough with different sugar toppings. Then the aroma of sugar fills the room, and a timer rings...
(SOUNDBITE OF TIMER BEEPING)
NAVARRO: ...Signaling that the first batch of conchas are done.
HURT: It's concha time.
PENA: Yeah, you guys did a great job topping these conchas. They look good. Excellent.
NAVARRO: Though Chef Pena argues that the conchas could use a few more minutes for the sugar topping to cool to its perfect crumbly consistency, the anticipation is too great. For home baker Rachel Najera, the first bite is heaven.
NAJERA: Oh, my gosh.
NAVARRO: Najera says the taste of pan dulce ties her to her Latino culture.
NAJERA: It just makes you want to honor the traditions of the pan dulce - you know, honor my culture. And it makes me feel proud when I am trying to kind of recreate the experience from my childhood.
NAVARRO: Bakers in the class walked away with homemade pan dulce and a desire to preserve the tradition for generations to come. For NPR News, I'm Marian Navarro in San Antonio.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EL PANADERO")
TIN TAN: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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