Kids in the Kitchen: Mexican Garlic-Oregano Bolillo Buns

by Aimee

Where I grew up in the frozen Yukon Territory, winter arrived early and stayed late, so the best way to cope was to embrace the snow.

Once a year our family hosted a sledding party that lasted all day; the crunch of our guests’ tires on snow beginning after breakfast and lasting into the night, when the Northern Lights flickered overhead.

Before the party, my mother and I would make bolillos, traditional Mexican crusty rolls, to serve with my mother’s hearty soup, and the pots of chili that guests brought. It was my job to shape the buns, making sure the ends were twisted and placing them on cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheets.

After the second rising, we would slash the tops lengthwise from end to end, and slide the pans into the oven to rise gloriously and turn brown all over.

I always grabbed two bolillos, warm from the back of the wood stove, before heading out into the snow. I’d slip them into the ends of my woolen mittens, before putting my feet deep into my Sorel boots. Then I would wrap a woven scarf around my neck and join a group of family, friends and sled dogs for the trudge out to the hill.

The best slope was on a small island nearly half a kilometer away across the frozen Jackfish Bay, but it was worth the trek. (Here’s the exact island, if you are curious). At the top of the hill one could see for miles, white shoreline dotted with peaked roof houses to the south, ice-bound lake and mountains to the north and west, and hills to the east.

My friends and I would pile three, four, even five on a battered wooden toboggan and shove off down the slope, the Huskies barking and leaping behind us. The hill was wicked fun and so tremendously steep that the sled would reach the bottom and glide far out onto the frozen Lake Laberge before lurching to a stop in a wind-carved snowdrift.

The snow stung our eyes, the ice particles clung to our wool mitts and formed hard balls, our toes ached from the cold no matter how many pairs of socks we wore, but still we flung ourselves down the perilous slopes again and again.

When my stomach started growling like the blue-eyed pups cavorting in the snow, I would sink into a snowdrift, pull off my snow-encrusted mitts and eat the bolillos. Two were never enough, but they kept me going for the walk home and the waiting pot-luck meal.

Why bolillo buns, when we were a family of Canadians living in the frozen North? Good question. My father spent much of his youth in Columbia and Venezuela and carried a love of South/Central American food into adulthood. Our family kitchen held a beloved Mexican cookbook and my sister and I probably made every single recipe from that book. Twice. Remember, this was before Pinterest, food blogs or, heck, the Internet. So, yes, a traditional Mexican bread brings back memories of baking with my mother.

Nowadays, I’m keeping up tradition with our three kids. Our sledding hill is much smaller in comparison, but it’s only five minutes out our back door. On a recent Saturday, Mateo and I baked a batch of tiny bolillos, scented with oregano and garlic, and every bit as crusty as the ones from my childhood. While the dough rose, we donned our gear and spent an hour tobogganing in the sunshine, and then returned to shape the buns.

Bolillos are a jolly baking recipe for getting kids involved in the kitchen. It’s always magical to see misshapen lumps of dough rise and transform into gorgeous golden buns. And there’s nothing better than eating one warm straight from the pan with butter.

We make our bolillos much smaller than they do in Mexico, small enough to fit in your pocket, but you could turn this recipe into 8 or 10 rolls to have them slightly larger. Serve them with homemade soup or chili for a comforting winter meal.

is a post from Simple Bites

© 2010-2015 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of SimpleBites.net subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplelivingmedia.com to let us know. Thanks.