Pan Dulce and Pan Sal remind a lot of people of where they came from. Photo by LIzeth Jimenez.
Back in San Juan Tianguismalco, Mexico, my grandfather bakes all types of bread. Now, here in in Brooklyn’s Kensington neighborhood my father Juan Jimenez felt inspired and began to bake panes de dulce y de sal. “I want to continue this tradition that my parents followed for many generations, the art of breadmaking,” said my father.
My father works in construction. But since 2022, on the weekends he becomes a baker, recreating the bread recipes he watched and learned from his father growing up in a small town in Puebla. He has two specialties: Pan de sal is oval-shaped and light brown in color and pan de dulce is round with a darker tan color. Neither bread is made with eggs
But before he began to bake, he worried that he would not do it correctly. “Make bread! Make bread!” my mother encouraged him. “You just have to practice and practice, and you will get the hang of it,” she said. My brother said, “Just make it for us. Let’s see how it comes out, teach me, and perhaps we will open a bakery one day.”
My brother and I help on the weekends and my mother offers bread to family and friends. Some do buy it. “We don’t make a lot of bread, but I’m glad some people buy from us,” my mother said.
For some, the taste of the bread reminds them of Mexico. “I remember buying this bread from Don Pedro [my grandfather] back in San Juan,” said Martina, a regular buyer. “It’s nice having this taste from back home here and sharing it with my daughters who love the pan de dulce.”
Friends who came from other countries also find it familiar. “I saw your mom offering bread, and the pan de dulce caught my eye, so I bought a bag. I am from Guatemala and know of a pan dulce, but I did not know that I would find the same taste from back home here. It just shows how people from separate places can have the same type of bread,” Christian, another customer, commented.
My father hopes to open a bakery one day.
Series: Community
