You can get black-and-white-cookie-inspired doughnuts, beer and, for a limited time, rosca de reyes.
La Newyorkina has brought back its black-and-white sweet bread for Three Kings Day this weekend.
The Mexican ice cream purveyor, who has been making traditional roscas for about five years, introduced the mashup last year for the holiday.
“I love black-and-white cookies, it’s such a New York thing,” La Newyorkina founder Fany Gerson said. “It inspired me to make the new version of the roscas.”
The black-and-white sweet bread is like having “just the muffin top,” the chef said, with its chocolate and vanilla sugary topping. It’s filled with Mexican chocolate.
Customers have been asking about the unique creation since its debut last year.
“I started getting emails throughout the year — ‘Are you going to have it again?’ People were very excited about it,” Gerson said. “People were like, this one is so much better than the traditional one.”
Though for those who do prefer the traditional rosca, La Newyorkina has that, too, with candied orange and fig, orange blossom and vanilla sugar topping.
Roscas are served for Three Kings Day, also known as the Feast of the Epiphany and Little Christmas, which is held on Jan. 6 and celebrates the biblical tale in which the Three Wise Men visited the baby Jesus after his birth.
As is customary with a rosca — akin to a king cake, another Epiphany treat — both of La Newyorkina’s versions have plastic babies hidden inside (two in the small option, and three in the large). Whoever gets a slice with a baby has to make tamales for Candlemas on Feb. 2, Gerson said.
Gerson is Jewish but would celebrate the Mexican tradition, known as Día de Reyes, growing up in Mexico City. Since she started selling roscas, she’s gotten a mix of customers, from those who are Mexican to people curious about the culinary tradition.
“It’s something that we want to share, and maybe it becomes part of their new tradition,” said Gerson, who plans to host friends at her Upper West Side apartment and serve roscas and pozole for Three Kings Day.
This isn’t the ice cream shop’s only foray into baked goods. La Newyorkina — which started out selling paletas at the Hester Street Fair in 2010 and now has two locations plus seasonal pop-ups — also makes a popular pan de muerto for Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Last year, it branched out to doing churros. And last month La Newyorkina started offering a rotating selection of Mexican sweet breads at its Greenwich Village location.
“Breads are a new thing we’re just hoping to expand on,” said Gerson, who is also behind the doughnut shop Dough. “We want to go bigger.”
The rosca de reyes is available for preorder with 24-hour notice now through Jan. 8 for pickup at La Newyorkina’s Greenwich Village storefront (240 Sullivan St.) and Red Hook production facility (61 Commerce St.). It is available in small (4-6 servings) and large (10-12 servings). The classic is $13 for small, $32 for large, and the black and white is $16 for small, $34 for large.
For more info, visit lanewyorkina.getbento.com.
