During a working visit to Mexico City, I stuffed myself with as much pan dulce as possible, including Conchas, sporting various sugary crusts, Orejas (elephant ears), Cortadillo and Cono de Crema, filled with custard. I fell in love with their corn muffins—huge and soft—but I missed a classic, the Mantecada (manteca means shortening or lard), an orange-flavored muffin with more depth of flavor and sophistication than what I was used to making at home.

What makes this an unusual item is that the recipe calls for both yeast and baking powder as do bisquetes, the super-sized Mexican biscuit. The yeast does not add much rise, but it does add noticeable flavor plus extra browning. It’s worth the addition. Two other ingredients make this a special recipe—almond flour for a softer texture and ⅔ cup oil (no butter) which, just like carrot cake, makes the finished muffin moister and gives it extra-long life, lasting a few days in an airtight container or longer in the fridge.

This is a simple one bowl method— the yeast, a bit of sugar, and the milk sit for a few minutes and are then added to a mix of eggs and sugar followed by neutral oil. Then the usual additions of milk and dry ingredients, two adds for the milk and three for the dry. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

These muffins do need liners (red glassine liners in Mexico) since the batter is filled right to the top. They bake for about a half hour at 375ÅãF. Let them cool for 10 minutes before serving or removing from the muffin tin.

The result is not too sweet, lightly orange-scented, and with good depth of flavor, decidedly more muffin than cupcake.