Facturas

Ingredients

Dough

• 600 gstrong white flour
• 80 gcaster sugar
• 12 gfine salt
• 14 gfresh yeast, or 7 g instant dried yeast
• 300 mlwhole milk, cold
• 2eggs
• 60 gsoft butter
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Lamination

• 300 gcold butter or vegetable shortening, for the block

Fillings and glaze

• 400 gpastry cream, made with 500 ml milk, 4 yolks, 120 g sugar, 40 g cornflour and a vanilla pod
• 300 gdulce de leche repostero
• 200 gquince paste (dulce de membrillo), cut in strips
• 250 gsugar and 150 ml water, boiled to a light syrup for glazing

Directions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk, eggs, soft butter and lemon zest and knead 8 minutes to a smooth, firm dough. Rest it, covered, 30 minutes at room temperature, then chill 1 hour.
2. Beat the cold block butter between two sheets of paper into a 20 x 20 cm square and keep it cold but pliable.
3. Roll the dough to 20 x 40 cm, lay the butter block on one half, fold over and seal the edges so no butter can escape.
4. Give the dough three single turns, rolling to 60 cm long and folding in three each time, with 30 minutes in the fridge between each turn. Argentine facturas use fewer turns than French viennoiserie, which is why they are denser and chewier.
5. Roll the finished block to 4 mm and cut it: triangles to roll into medialuna shapes, squares folded over pastry cream for pañuelitos, strips coiled around quince paste for vigilantes, and rounds pinched into shells for libritos.
6. Fill and shape, keeping the seams underneath, and set well apart on lined trays.
7. Prove at 24–26°C (75–80°F) for 1.5 to 2 hours, until visibly puffed and wobbly when the tray is nudged. Do not prove them warmer or the butter runs out before baking.
8. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 14–18 minutes until deep gold and the layers are visible at the cut edges.
9. Brush hot from the oven with the sugar syrup so it dries to a sticky lacquer, and cool on a rack. Facturas are bought and eaten by the dozen, the same morning.

Technique

• Facturas are the Argentine bakery breakfast, sold by the dozen in a flat box and eaten with coffee or mate. The word means both the pastries and the bill, and the names of individual shapes (bolas de fraile, vigilantes, sacramentos) come from an old anticlerical bakers’ joke.
• Many porteño bakeries laminate with a firm vegetable shortening rather than butter, which is why bakery facturas have that particular chew and keep well; butter gives a more delicate, more French result.
• The sugar syrup glaze while hot is what separates a factura from a croissant. It must go on within a minute of the tray leaving the oven.
• Keep everything cold during lamination. If butter breaks through the dough, chill for 20 minutes before continuing.

Substitutions

• No time to laminate: an enriched brioche-style dough, rolled and filled the same way, gives the bolas de fraile and pastelito shapes honestly, if not the layers.
• Quince paste can be replaced with sweet potato paste (dulce de batata), the other classic Argentine filling.
• Shortening in place of butter for the block is the traditional bakery route and is more forgiving in a warm kitchen.

Variations

• Medialunas de grasa, small, dense and heavily glazed.
• Vigilantes, straight bars filled with quince or sweet potato paste.
• Bolas de fraile, fried and filled with pastry cream or dulce de leche.

History

Buenos Aires bakers’ pastries whose names, from vigilantes to bolas de fraile, are traced to the anticlerical bakers’ unions of the 1880s.

Frequently asked questions

What is Facturas?

Facturas is a bread & pastry from Argentina: sweet breakfast pastries bought by the dozen for the office or home. Buenos Aires bakers’ pastries whose names, from vigilantes to bolas de fraile, are traced to the anticlerical bakers’ unions of the 1880s.

How long does Facturas take to make?

Facturas takes 1 hr of preparation and 30 min baking, plus 4 hr proving and chilling of cooking. The recipe makes 18 pastries. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Facturas?

Yes, within limits. No time to laminate: an enriched brioche-style dough, rolled and filled the same way, gives the bolas de fraile and pastelito shapes honestly, if not the layers. Quince paste can be replaced with sweet potato paste (dulce de batata), the other classic Argentine filling. Shortening in place of butter for the block is the traditional bakery route and is more forgiving in a warm kitchen.

What is the most important thing to get right in Facturas?

Give the dough three single turns, rolling to 60 cm long and folding in three each time, with 30 minutes in the fridge between each turn. Argentine facturas use fewer turns than French viennoiserie, which is why they are denser and chewier.