Dallas bakery dresses up its conchas for Halloween

A North Texas bakery dresses up their concha, a Mexican sweet bread, for Halloween.

At the weekend there is a concha with a purple coating, decorated with a spider or as a mummy or pumpkin.

These Halloween-themed breads are available from three Del Norte Bakery locations in Dallas.

Annette De Lira, Operations Manager at Pleasant Grove Bakery, says they have been making “weird” conchas, as she calls them, for a number of years.

Thanks to social media platforms such as Instagram, the bakery can show its creative designs on the traditional Pan Dulce or Mexican sweet bread.

De Lira says their customers prefer traditional conchas, with their pink, yellow, white or brown sugar coating.

But as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas approaches, the bakery is using these holidays as an opportunity to give traditional bread a different twist.

“We try to have a little fun with them during the holidays and [attract] the younger audience, ”says De Lira.

Perla Barcenas and Crystal, 4, are picking out conchas, sweet Halloween-themed bread at Del Norte Bakery in Dallas.(Anja Schlein)

The bakery even takes special bread orders. In October, a customer ordered a Pan Dulce Charge for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Del Norte Bakery took up the challenge and baked some conchas in the shape of pink ribbons, symbolizing breast cancer awareness.

In 2015, the bakery decided to step out of the drawer and experiment with different designs. His first non-traditional concha wore the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ flag.

When same-sex marriage was legalized in Texas, De Lira recalls telling her bakers to try making a “rainbow” concha to celebrate.

She said the concha was popular without the help of social media platforms and even with customers who didn’t know the news.

“The regular customers who didn’t know what we were celebrating didn’t know what was going on, but they loved the colors,” says De Lira.

Months later, in October 2015, De Lira decided to try some fun conchas for Halloween and they were a success.

“They were a hit,” says De Lira, who grew up in her family’s bakeries.

To make the most of the swing of their new concha designs, Del Norte Panadería also tried some Christmas conchas with snowflakes and everything, inspired by the popular Disney movie Frozen.

De Lira ensures that their bakery’s bread is entirely handmade and not made from frozen dough.

Traditional conchas are easy to make. Your bakers can bake 12 rimmed sheets of conchas in minutes.

But thematic conchas require a more detailed process as their design is different.

For the Halloween conchas, the bakers must carefully – and quickly – fix the mummy’s eyes on them before the bread rises.

The Halloween conchas can be found at the bakery’s three locations on weekends until they are sold out. They are available daily during the week of October 25th.

These conchas are not the same as the traditional pan de muerto or “bread for the dead” used on the altars on the day of the dead.

Although pan de muerto is round like a concha, it has a chunky top made of sweeter, harder bread that depicts the deceased’s skull and bones.

The original Del Norte Bakery is located at 5507 Lindsley Avenue. At the moment, only pan de muerto and Halloween cookies are sold, not the special conchas.

Turning to Thanksgiving, De Lira says she still has no ideas for themed breads to sell in November. But they will likely try something a little unusual, like replacing the traditional ginger and pork bread with a turkey-shaped bread.

Del Norte Bakery is located at 3210 Falls Dr., Dallas; 7843 Lake June Street, Dallas; and 839 Singleton Blvd., No. 150, Dallas.

Conchas, Halloween-themed sweet bread, at Del Norte Bakery in Dallas(Anja Schlein)

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