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Paulina Cocina has become a popular youtube culinary influencer. Why is she famous? She makes easy-peasy recipes, uses affordable ingredients and has a firm philosophy of not throwing food away. Also, she uses a very essential ingredient in every video and recipe: humor!

Please, don’t get scared away by the start of the recipe, which requires you to make a “sourdough starter”. It may sound new and scary, but trust us that it is super quick to prepare, even for those of us who have little to no experience in the kitchen. Alright, still on board? Good! So these are the ingredients:

For the sourdough starter:

• 2 spoons of white bread flour
• 1 spoon of sugar
• 1 splash of warm milk
• 1oz /30g of fresh yeast

For the pan dulce

• 500g/ 4 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 200cc/ 1 cup of warm milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 60g/ ½ cup of sugar (you can add some lemon and/or orange zest to your sugar the day before to give it more flavor)
• 80g / ⅔ cup of butter
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 or 2 panettone tins

Filling

• Raisins (soaked in brandy)
• Nuts
• Almonds
• Candied fruit

Icing

• 2 spoons of powdered sugar
• Splash of water
• Splash of lemon juice

Pan Dulce Recipe In Four Easy Steps

1. Place the sourdough starter ingredients in a small bowl. Keep in mind that the milk should be warm, not lukewarm or cold. Mix all the ingredients with a spoon and cover the starter with a paper film or a dishcloth and let it rest until it doubles in size (about 15 to 20 minutes). 

2. In a large bowl, add the flour and sugar (with the lemon and orange zest) and salt, and then stir. Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the eggs, butter, warm milk, sourdough starter, and vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients – feel free to watch Paulina’s video (linked below) to have an overview of the process – with your hands from the center to the outside until its homogeneous. Once it’s thoroughly mixed, bring it over the kitchen counter and knead energetically for 15 minutes until the dough is soft. Divide it into two balls, cover them with paper film and let them sit for at least half an hour.

3. Once the dough balls have doubled in size, place them onto a lightly floured surface and knead for another 5 minutes. Gradually knead in the soaked raisins, nuts, almonds, and candied fruit. Keep in mind that you can put in some chocolate chips, or any other addition if these fillings don’t appeal to you. Shape the dough into a ball and pop into the prepared panettone tin. You can choose to make two pan dulces or just one big one. Cover them once again and let rise for an hour. After that, place the tin/s on a greased sheet pan.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 356°F and bake the pan dulces for 30-40 minutes until they look golden. Take them out and let them cool. Once they have cooled down, mix the ingredients to the icing and drizzle on top of the pan dulces to your liking.