Pan dulce, or sweet bread from Mexico, is another name for conchas. I searched the Internet for the best conchas recipe, but I came up empty. So I decided to combine parts of three distinct recipes—with a few changes, of course—to make my own! While many of the recipes you see call for butter in the dough, this one is more conventional and utilizes lard. You’ll be left with delicate pillows of sweetness that you’ll think about while you sleep.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 2 – 9×5 inch loaves |
Ingredients
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 3 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup orange juice
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Wash sweet potatoes, slice lengthwise and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until tender, about 30 minutes. Let cool, peel and mash.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, eggs and oil. Stir in orange juice and 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. Stir flour mixture into egg/sweet potato mixture until just combined. Fold in pecans if desired. Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 331 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 37 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 326 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is so good. I did make some adjustments just because of what I had in my cabinet and also based on some of the reviews. I used 1 cup of cornmeal and 2 cups of flour. I used one cup of brown sugar and one cup of white sugar. I used turmeric and ginger instead of cloves and allspice. I made muffins and they cooked in 30 minutes. I had enough left over to make a small loaf which I packaged and sent to my college son. The best muffin I’ve ever had honestly.
Absolutely love the recipe. I did make a few changes to fit my taste but the recipe itself was amazing. I didn’t use orange juice i used apple sauce and instead of oil i used butter. I also used half raw sugar and the other half brown sugar.
Everyone loved it. Next time will line bottom of pan with parchment. Bottom of loaf stuck to treated pan.
I loved it! I turned it into muffins, decreased the sugar, used applesauce instead of oil and used less nutmeg. My family really enjoyed these. Thanks!
DELICIOUS!!!! Believe it or not, I made this at home for my family but was not planning to eat any because I don’t particularly like bread. When I saw that no one at home was touching the sweet potato bread at home, I gave some to my dad, my mom’s health aide, and today I finally tasted the bread and it is Delicious! I plan to do this more often at home so that I can have breakfast for work. Hooray to the recipe maker!!! 5Stars*****
Amazing! I cut this recipe in half and used a 15oz can of sweet potatos drained and mashed but keep everything else the same. A new family favorite
I reduced sugar to 2c, and substituted 1/2c. unsweetened applesauce and 1/2c. coconut oil for the 1c. oil. I didn’t have orange jiuce, but I did have tangerine/pineapple blend. I also added dried cherries and slivered almonds to batter. I also added a small amount of flaxmeal. I sprinkled brown sugar on top and made 24 muffins. I baked for 25 minutes. Out of the oven, they were moist and not too sweet. Perfect! This recipe is a keeper.
I reduced sugar to 2 c., used just 1/2 c. of oil, and added 1/2 c. ground flaxseed instead. I was out of allspice, so I used 1/2 tsp. ginger and 1/2 tsp. black pepper. Yummy–my whole family loved it!
This recipe was an excellent foundation for a sugar free version. Instead of the 3 cups of sugar I used 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup, and a little less than 1/2 teaspoon pure Stevie extract powder (we prefer Kal brand with no filler). I also prefer them as muffins. This recipe also works great with wheatfree flour such as Pamela’s gluten-free bread mix and flour blend.
I had some dribs and drags left over in my fridge and went searching for a recipe to use them and discovered this TREASURE. So moist and flavorful. I shared a loaf with family members, and this gorgeous bread was loved and appreciated by all. Like other reviewers, I reduced the sugar to 2 cups (3 definitely would have been way too much!), and used 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1/2 cup applesauce. This recipe is a KEEPER! Thank you for sharing.
I did as suggested and used the juice from the canned sweet potatoe, good idea! I also added 1/4 t ground clove. 🙂 The bread burned a little before it was done. Next time I will bake @ 375.
I love this I made muffins.
I am finding that I make this bread all the time. I always cut the sugar in half to make it not so terribly unhealthy, and I also substitute in half whole wheat flour to make it a little more hearty. In a pinch I once substituted freshly squeezed grapefruit juice for the orange juice. Always comes out perfect and super yummy! A huge hit with my family and friends! Thanks! 🙂
This made enough batter for two 9×5 loaf pans. It baked nicely in 65 mins. I used the whole amount of sugar and we found it perfectly sweet, and it’s well spiced for us too. Very moist, dense and all around really good. Thx.
I usually try to make recipes exactly as written the first time, but I used only 1 1/2 C sugar for this one. Since I was modifying, I used applesauce in lieu of oil as well. It was perfect and I’m glad I didn’t use the full amount of sugar, I could even see cutting back to 1C. I think it would be great with whole wheat flour as well and will try that next time. The blend of spices is just perfect an not too strong even for my young kids.
I just made this and it is tasty. I love sweet potatoes and was excited to try something new with them. I took the advice of a couple of other people who reviewed this recipe and used apple sauce instead of oil, and cut the sugar from 3C to 2C. I sprinkled 1/2 C of this sugar on top as someone had suggested. It was plenty sweet. Next time I may cut the amount of nutmeg as I found it a bit strong. I made this recipe gluten free by substituting my own flour mix and it turned out great (some recipes don’t turn out when you make them gluten free). Gluten Free Flour: 1C brown rice flour 1-1/4 C white rice flour 1/4C potato starch 2/3C tapioca starch 3/4C sweet rice flour 1/3C corn starch 2 tsp guar gum You can find these ingredients at bulk food or health food stores.
We don’t like sweet potatoes, but had some and they must be used. This was fabulous. Everyone loved….very similar to pumpkin bread.
First, I halved the recipe. Substitutions made include: 1 cup whole wheat and 3/4 cup all-purpose, 1/2 cup applesauce for the oil, 1 egg-beater cup instead of two eggs, and used 1/2 cup splenda/sugar baking mix instead of all the sugar. Also added dried cranberries and did not peel the sweet potatoes. It turned out wonderfully, at just one hour exactly. A little oatmeal and sugar sprinkled on top, beautiful!
my family LOVED these! I made mini-muffins (approx 70) about and a loaf. I used 2 cups of leftover sweet potatoes from Thanksgiving plus one cup canned pumpkin (also extra from the making of a pumpkin pie). Instead of all the spices, I used 2 tablespoons of Pampered Chef’s Cinnamon Plus blend and they came out perfect!!!! We ate about a dozen muffins right out of the oven.
While this was good I was hoping for something a little less dense (too much like zucchini bread for me) any suggestions to make it more fluffy?
The taste was good, but this was much too dry. Would recommend decreasing the baking time by about 5-10 minutes. UPDATE: I tried this recipe again and it would also benefit from slightly more OJ to add moistness.