From native sweets to colonial confectionery
Mexican confectionery is often described as a meeting of two traditions. Before the sixteenth century, sweetness came from honey, agave sap and fruit, and the best-known sweets used seeds such as amaranth. After the Spanish conquest, sugar cane, dairy animals, wheat, eggs, almonds and spices changed what cooks could make, and those who had the resources and the time to make elaborate sweets were often religious communities and wealthy households.
This article follows that change through a few specific sweets. A caution applies throughout: the history of individual sweets is full of charming origin stories that are hard to verify, and where the story is a tradition rather than a documented fact, it is described that way here.
Why convents
Convents in colonial cities, including Puebla, Oaxaca and Mexico City, are widely associated with the development of sweet making. They had a steady supply of sugar and eggs, kitchens staffed by people with time and skill, and a regular demand: feast days, gifts for bishops and benefactors, and sales that helped fund the community. Recipes were exchanged and passed on, and some made their way into later cookbooks and home kitchens.
The popular image of a nun inventing a famous sweet on a particular day is usually a legend. It is more accurate to say that convent kitchens were important places where European sweet-making techniques were practised and adapted with local ingredients. The idea is also tied to regional food traditions such as Puebla cuisine, where convent history is a recurring theme.
Sugar technology
Many of the sweets below rely on one skill: cooking sugar syrup to a certain stage. At lower temperatures it stays syrupy; further along, it becomes a thick paste, then a hard candy. Without a thermometer, cooks traditionally judged the stage by how a drop behaved in water or how the syrup fell from a spoon. Hot sugar can cause severe burns, and these sweets should be cooked with care.
Unrefined cane sugar in cones, known as piloncillo sugar, is a common sweetener in traditional recipes. Its darker, caramel flavour is part of what distinguishes many Mexican sweets from those made only with white sugar.
Cajeta
Cajeta is a thick, dark caramel made by slowly simmering milk, traditionally goat’s milk, with sugar until it reduces and browns. It is associated in particular with the Bajio region and the city of Celaya in Guanajuato, a connection discussed under Bajio cuisine, although similar milk caramels exist elsewhere in Latin America under other names, and the origin is not settled.
The slow cooking is the point: milk sugars and proteins brown over time, creating a complex flavour. A small amount of baking soda is sometimes added to help the colour and texture, and a version flavoured with liquor is sold as envinada. Cajeta is spread on bread, spooned over ice cream or crepes, sandwiched between thin wafers, and used in cakes and flans.
Alegrias
Alegria, meaning “joy”, is a bar or disc of popped amaranth seeds bound with syrup made from honey or unrefined sugar, sometimes with nuts, raisins or chocolate. Amaranth was cultivated in pre-Hispanic Mexico and was used in ceremonial foods, including dough figures shaped for religious occasions. Colonial authorities are often said to have discouraged these uses, though the seed itself survived as a food. The modern alegria is a descendant that combines the native grain with European-style syrup work.
Amaranth is associated with the area of Xochimilco and Tulyehualco near Mexico City, among other places. The plant’s leaves are also eaten as one of the many wild greens of the Mexican countryside. Alegrias are light and chewy, and are now widely available as a snack.
Candied and crystallised fruit
Cooking fruit in progressively thicker sugar syrup preserves it, and this technique was widely used in colonial Mexico. Candied pumpkin, sweet potato, figs, citrus peel, pineapple, guava and tejocotes are all part of the tradition. Fruit pastes, called ate, are made by cooking fruit pulp with sugar until it sets firm enough to slice. Ate from Michoacan cuisine is well known, with guava and quince among the common flavours.
The best-known candied cactus, acitron, was made from the biznaga cactus and used in cooking and baking. Because wild biznaga populations are a conservation concern, cooks today often substitute other candied fruit, a sensible approach if you come across an older recipe that calls for it.
Sweet potato, coconut, milk and nuts
Several other sweets owe much to the same convent and colonial setting:
- Camote. Sweet potato cooked into a firm paste with sugar and often with fruit flavours, sold in coloured sticks. Puebla is strongly associated with it.
- Jamoncillo. A fudge-like sweet made from milk and sugar, sometimes with pumpkin seeds, with regional variations.
- Cocada. Coconut cooked in sugar, either chewy or baked until golden.
- Dulces de leche and pastes of nuts or seeds, including pumpkin seed and peanut confections.
- Egg yolk sweets, a Spanish-influenced group that uses yolks left from other cooking.
The same ideas appear in desserts served at the table. A Lenten dish of bread soaked in syrup with cheese and dried fruit, known as bread capirotada, is one example of colonial sweetness moving into home cooking.
Evolution after the convents
In the nineteenth century, many convents were closed or restricted by law, and sweet-making knowledge spread to private kitchens, markets and small businesses. Confectioners opened shops, and sweets became part of regional identity and local commerce. Over the twentieth century, factories took over production of many candies, while artisan versions remained, often as specialities for tourists, festivals and home cooks. Today there is also interest in rediscovering old recipes and using native ingredients.
Reading a sweet shop
A useful way to understand this history is to look at a traditional sweet shop with its categories in mind. Sweets made from seeds and grains (amaranth, pumpkin seed, peanut) typically point to older native roots. Those made from milk, eggs and refined sugar point to colonial influence, and fruit pastes and candied fruit reflect preservation traditions that crossed the Atlantic. Most items, of course, combine several of these, and that mixture is the real story of Mexican sweets.