13 BEST Mexican Breads That Are Certified Delicioso! 😋🍞

When you’re looking for the best recipe ideas around, this epic list of 13 easy Mexican Breads will be sure to get you started in the right direction!
Mexican cuisine is as colorful, vibrant, and festive as its rich cultural heritage.

When we think of Mexico and its people, we usually think of local fiestas and other celebrations that reflect their indigenous past, Spanish colonial influence, and Mexican values of family and friendships.

However, even on regular days, Mexican’s way of living is just as interesting as they are known to have tightly-knit relations with their nuclear and extended families and immediate circles, colleagues, and even communities.

One of the ways in which the Mexican folk bond is through food.

Mexican food is wide-ranging and has been brought by ethnic, regional, and colonial influences.

Their food staples and main courses are colorful and varied, with lots of fruits, vegetables, meat, and especially herbs and spices.

Yet, Mexican bread is primarily borrowed from Spain or generally European influences, with some of these being variations of already popular bread staples and others often served in religious and cultural observances.

Pan De Muerto (Bread Of The Dead), Pan De Yema (Oaxacan Yolk Bread), and Rosca De Reyes (Kings Day Bread) are especially tied to certain holidays and religious observances relevant to Mexicans.

Check out #7 for something cute and sweet!

Listed below are 13 popular Mexican breads that are also easy to prepare!

Which of these bread recipes will catch your attention?

Let’s find out!

1. Bolillo (Mexican Crusty Rolls)

To put it in simple terms, Bolillo is a plain white Mexican bread roll with a mild to sweet taste similar to a French baguette.

You’ll immediately notice its oval-shaped appearance with a slit in the middle, resembling coffee beans or cowrie shells.

Yet, despite the plain nature of this bread, Bolillo is a classic bread staple mainly for the brown, crusty exterior and soft, airy interior.

These attributes make this bread particularly useful in sandwiches such as tortas and molettes and side dishes for other meals.

2. Buñuelos Mexicanos (Mexican Fried Dough Fritters)

Buñuelo is not mainly an original Mexican bread dish but is common in countries with a heavy Spanish influence.

If you search this bread online, you’ll find a myriad of Buñuelos with different appearances and textures, which shows how countries have put a spin on the recipe to make it distinctively theirs.

In this case, the Mexican variation of the Buñuelo is primarily a flat, fried, and sweetened dough fritter with a sweet and crispy taste that could melt on your tongue.

This bread dish is often served as a treat during Christmas, but given the easy-to-do preparation and commonly seen ingredients in the recipe, you could create some of these in the comfort of your own home!

3. Capirotada (Mexican Bread Pudding)

Lent is a significant observance for Christians worldwide as they remember and reflect on the periods that led to the trial, death, and eventual resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Depending on religious affiliation and personal preference, many Christians have been spending Lent fasting on, among other things, consumption of meat and poultry, with the exclusion of certain dairy products.

Capirotada is a bread pudding dish typical in the Mexican observance of Lent.

This dish does not have meat, but you’ll still feel full with the inclusion of Bolillo slices, cane sugar known as piloncillo, cinnamon, and cheese, the latter of which is preferable for those who prefer a cheesy, milky taste on their bread pudding.

4. Concha (Mexican Sweet Bread Roll)

A popular afternoon snack (locally known in Mexico and Spanish-influenced countries as merienda), the Concha is a unique-looking sweet bread that is part of the pan dulce (or sweet bread) pastries.

This snack is often tender but is covered by a sweet, crunchy topping typically made from vanilla and is also offered with other toppings such as chocolate.

Often sold in bakeries and local shops, you could also create one of these at home, but it requires a meticulous process, especially with the wide array of designs that you could do with the toppings.

5. Empanada (Mexican Filled Bread)

All of us are familiar and have eaten a piece of the Empanada.

Empanadas are bite-sized fried or baked turnover pastries that are toasted on the outside and savory on the inside.

The main highlight of this dish is not the bread itself but its filling, which is often made from cooked chicken, beef, fish meat, and even vegetables.

Combining the bread and the filling makes the empanada both crunchy and tasty, and because it is often bite-sized, you could have as many of these as you want!

6. Mantecadas (Pan Dulce Muffins)

Mantecada is the Mexican version of the sweet muffin treats we all know and love.

Famous for its spongy texture with a crunchy top, you could mistake Mantecada for any other muffin variants.

However, the typical Mantecada uses oil rather than butter, but these can still be used interchangeably, and you could still get the same results.

Mantecadas are popularly sold in red muffin cups, making them distinct from other muffin brands. 

Yet, regardless of the color of muffin cups, you could still enjoy this famed Mexican sweet muffin.

7. Orejas (Mexican Sweet Puff Pastry Ears)

Orejas is a Spanish word that literally translates to “ears.”

This word also pertains to these cute, sweet, and luscious puff pastries that are indeed shaped like ears.

However, aside from the cute ear (or probably heart)-shaped pastries, another selling point for this bread dish is the sweet flavors of glazed sugar, which is brushed on both sides of the pastry.

Orejas will always be a Mexican sweet treat for elders and children alike due to their unique appearance and glazed sweet taste!

8. Pan De Elote (Mexican Sweet Cornbread)

Did you know that corn, locally called maize, is a staple grain ingredient in Mexico?

This is why it’s not a surprise that you could encounter Mexican cornbread, popularly known as Pan de Elote.

Yet, this is actually more of a cake pastry than typical bread.

Nonetheless, this recipe calls for a blended mixture of bits of corn, milk, vanilla, butter, and eggs.

Depending on the method of blending, you could either make your corn mixture real smooth or have some more corn texture.

Either way, you could definitely taste the corn mixture in this wonderfully sweet and buttery dish.

9. Pan De Muerto (Bread Of The Dead)

Pan De Muerto is a kind of sweet bread that is appropriately served during the festive Día de Los Muertos, known as the Day of the Dead, which occurs during the first two days of November.

Commonly served as an altar offering along with fruits, wine, and flowers, the Pan De Muerto’s appearance and presentation have some form of symbolism.

For instance, the round bread represents the grave or the circle of life, the bone-shaped dough on top of it symbolizes the deceased person, and the circular bulge at the center on some forms of this bread represents the tears of the beloved of the dead.

However, this bread is glazed with sugar, which we think fits the lively and festive nature of Mexico’s observance of Día de Los Muertos.

10. Pan De Yema (Oaxacan Yolk Bread)

Here’s another “day of the dead” bread for you, now from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

As the name suggests, the Pan de Yema primarily uses egg yolks, although more eggs are added to the mixture later on, and another one to simply brush the bread texture with egg wash.

While commonly served all year round, the Pan de Yema is also offered during the Día de Los Muertos, when bakers and cooks hand paint a small part of the middle of the bread with a certain face on it.

11. Rosca De Reyes (Kings Day Bread)

Mexicans tend to celebrate their version of the Christian feast of the Epiphany with the Día de Los Reyes on January 6, also marking the last day of the Christmas period.

During this time, Mexicans love to serve Rosca De Reyes, a unique-looking bread dish that can be likened to a Christmas ornament.

Indeed, Rosca de Reyes has a lot of decorations, from colorful cherries to quince jellies to even sugar paste.

Given how big this bread is, this dish is best served sliced and shared with the whole group, fitting for the celebration in general.

12. Telera (Mexican White Bread Rolls)

Telera is similar to Bolillo in that both of these are bread rolls.

However, the Telera has a much softer texture and flatter, oblong-shaped appearance.

Nonetheless, Telera is a popular alternative to the bolillo for sandwich bread and side dishes.

13. Tortilla (Flatbread)

Tortilla is often known for wrapping other cooked dishes, such as tacos, burritos, flautas, and quesadillas.

This makes the Mexican flatbread popular yet also underrated as a bread staple in itself.

However, many Mexican dishes are not complete without this flatbread, as tortillas are thick enough to hold enough Mexican food fillings.

The bottom line

Mexican bread does not get much attention from people around the globe.

After all, many of Mexico’s popular bread dishes are adapted from popular Spanish and European bread staples.

However, Mexican bread is also a reflection of their colorful and tasty cuisine, which, in turn, is molded by centuries of enduring indigenous traditions and colonial influences, which have also been adapted for modern times.

If you happen to prepare any of these bread dishes, you should note that the best way to serve these is by sharing them with other people.

Besides, Mexicans are fond of sharing food, which symbolizes their close-knit ties to families, friends, colleagues, and people within their communities.

Looking for more Mexican food options, we’ve compiled lists of 27 Mexican Appetizers,  30 Mexican Ground Beef Recipes, 30 Mexican Chicken Casserole Recipes, and 26 Mexican Desserts that you should definitely check out.