As a boy in Monterrey, I grew up eating “gorditas de harina”. This is a regional pastry that is either not known in most of Mexico or whatever they call by this name is very different. For me, there were two gold standards:

First and best, those made by Fernanda at my grandmother’s house, where I’d down them by the dozen (not healthy). She retired around 25 years ago and I never had them again.

Second best were those made by Chelito at the JCC (aka “el Club”). Loving members of my family would bring me large frozen packages of them up until she retired about two years ago.

So I was surprised when my aunt Jenny shared Chelito’s recipe:

They’re easy enough to make even for someone as useless around the kitchen as me (Ilán helped, though). And it seems like baking is the thing to do in a pandemic, and if my aunts can do it so can I. I am capturing it here for posterity.

Gorditas de Chelo

• 1 kg flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (Rexal)
• 3 eggs
• 1 can of unsweetened evaporated milk (Carnation Clavel)
• 400 g (2 cups) lard / vegetable shortening (Crisco)

Pour flour, baking powder, sugar in a bowl. Add lard and mix with fingers. Add eggs. Finally, add evaporated milk. Mix well. Let it rest for a few minutes. Make balls and use roller to give the desired shape (~12 inch circle, thick). Cook on a griddle.

Update Jan 3, 2022: If using the electric griddle that allows adjusting temperature, set to 300 degrees and cook 5 minutes each side.

If you make them, let me know! I’ll make more soon, since my batch lasted only two days.