Little bakery with loads of Pan Dulce

Only about a block away from where my home in Paramount is a small South Gate bakery called Lucero Bakery Express that, for years, has made a variety of sweet bread along with vivid birthday cakes is the shape are characters like Winnie the Pooh and Cookie Monster.

Sweet bread, also known as pan dulce, is a popular Mexican pastry that comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s often eaten for breakfast. According to Amaribel Fernandez, cashier and cake baker, the sweet breads are typically prepared in the cold dark mornings. By 4:30 a. m., the breads are rising to the opening of the shop.

These little loaves, light and decorative, are often topped with sugar, some more than others. One of the most common types of pan dulce is the concha, which means seashell in Spanish. It sugary crust, ranging from white to brown to pink, creates a cracked turtle shell over the loaves. While sweet soft and savory, conchas and other pan dulces are not for the health-wary.

There are other, more mysterious sweet breads sitting on the paint-chipped racks of the Lucero Bakery Express. At first site, bread pudding appears to be nothing more than spongy square of dark, damp, raisin-filled bread. 

However, this lumpy-crusted bread is in fact a Frankenstein monster, recycled from the soaking remains of day-old loaves of bolillos, an oval shaped Mexican bread and cousin of the baguette. Bread pudding, moist to the touch, is an interesting combination of salty and sweet with a sugary tingle resonating at the back of your tongue.