Spanish Easter torrijas

Today we'll bring you another recipe for Easter: the typical spanish Torrijas.
There are many different versions of the torrijas in other european countries and it's a recipe of humble descent, and we do not know exactly what its origin is. It is usually believed that it has been created in the XV century, when monks invented this recipe to sweeten their lent period using the bread. There are also documents telling us that the torrijas may have an andalusi origin, since that the moorish have a sweet dish they called zalabiyya, that was a fried bread or a bun with honey. This version of it is to be found in countries like Egypt, Syria and Algeria.

The torrijas are a recipe that is as ancient as easy. You'll agree that is really simple and super effective, please try it at home! ;)

Sugar with cinnamon

Ingredients:

- Sliced bread (preferably of the previous day)
- milk (enough milk to wet completely the bread)
- lemon zest of lemon skin (and/or orange)
-egg
- a stick of cinnamon (optional)
- sugar
- cinnamon in powder
- honey (optional)
- olive oil (to fry the bread)

Preparation:

1º- Slice your bread, you can eventually do it with sandwich bread, but it will definately taste better with european bread.

2º- in a pot we put the milk on heat, together with the lemon and the orange zest or skin, the cinnamon and let it cook developing an excellent aroma.

3º- Beat an egg and put it aside. Prepare the sugar with the cinnamon in powder and put it aside too.

4º- Put some oil on a pan on heat to fry our torrijas.

5º- Put the bread slices deep into the milk, being careful not breaking them.
Remove the liquid in excess, pass them to the beated egg and put them in the pan to fry them. Once they are fried, we take them on a paper towel and pour the sugar with the cinnamon over them. And ready!

This is the classical version of them: the fried torrijas. Beside of the sugar and the cinnamon, you can add honey, liqueur, ice cream and so on over them...you choose!

A trick I would like to share with you is to pour the milk over the sliced bread, rather than submerge it into the milk. In this way it just wets the bread better. Then put it into the fridge, just to make them a little bit stronger and be sure they won't break. If you do like this, you'll have a very moist torrijas, since the bread will defrost the milk will go out...highly recomendable!

previously frosted torrijas

into the oven

Today wil talk you about other way you can have your torrija, since sometimes we just don't want to eat too much fried food, even if they are traditional. In the same way we fry our torrijas, we can also bake them on a pan or put them in an oven, reducing in this way their calories. Hey! You have no excuses left not to try our torrijas, huh? ;)
Of course they will not be as moist as they would be fried, but in this case a drizzle of honey or a sweet liqueur like the Ronmiel Arehucas.

torrijas in the pan

               

                                    

baked torrijas

                                   

 torrijas cooked in the oven

But there are not just the milk torrijas, there are also wine torrijas, done in the same exact way but with wine instead of the milk.
The torrijas or similar sweet dishes are just so popular in the Latin America, because of the spanish immigration. In these beautiful countries they are known as "torrejas" or even "tostadas francesas". In the english speaking World, they are known ad "french toast", but they usually are baked in a pan.

Happy easter everybody!

 AnGie

Easter Hot Cross Buns

Easter time is getting closer, and lots of traditional Easter recipes inundates our homes. We'd love to fill our bowl with some of the sweets that are typical of this period. We wanted to start our Holy Week traditional recipes collection with something that's not quite typical of our borough, but that we learned to love a lot in the last few years, since we started eating them all year round he he. Sorry Britons! 

Those buns have many names, Cross Buns, Good Friday Buns, Easter Buns, etc...but their original name is Hot Cross Buns, and the tradition states that they are to be eaten on Good Friday, and are typical of Commonwhealth countries like United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They starts to crowd bakeries during Lent, and they are buns filled with currants, and their typical feature is the cross that decorates them.

The cross, symbol of the Crucifixion, has always been related to Christian tradition, but it seems that this feature on the buns comes actually from pagan era, where the crossed buns were used to honour the goddess Eostre, or to represent the four lunar phases. In the United Kingdom, during the reign of Isabel II of England, it was prohibited the sell and the consumption of these buns, with few exceptions admitted: burials, Christmas or Good Friday being amongst them. Lots of legends and superstitions too surround them, for example it is said that they have healing powers. Sharing a Hot Cross Buns with another person guarantee ethernal friendship. It is also said that hanging a Hot Cross Buns on a wall prevents the house from fires, or a ship from shipwrecks.




Today there are many modern varieties of these buns, using the same base but filling it with other kinds of dehydrated fruits or even chocolate. In Czech Republic there is a very similar bun, used in this time of the year too.
Today, we will bring you our own version, where we added to the traditional recipe zested nutmeg and dehydrated pineapple and papaya. We hope you like it!

Ingredients:

• 300 ml of milk
• 60 g.of butter
• 500 gr. of flour
• 1 spoonful of salt ( 1 tsp)
• 100 gr. of sugar
• 7 g. of bakery yeast (1 envelope of dehydrated yeast)
• 1egg
• 50 g. aprox. of small minced dehydrated fruits
• 100 g. aprox. of currants
• 1 spoonful of cinnamon ( 1 tsp)
• 1/2 spoonful of zested nutmeg

Glaze icing:

• Golden Syrup ( 2 spoons)
• water ( 3 spoons)

For the decoration (cross):

• flour ( some 3 spoons approx.)
• water

Preparation:

1º- Put a pot with milk on heat, and let it boil. Retire from heat and wait for it to cool down.

2º- Put the flour, the sugar, the salt, the yeast, the butter and the egg in a bowl. Mix them together, and gently pour the milk. Stir a little bit, until you obtain a sort of sticky mass.

3º- Add the spices now (in my case, the zested nutmeg and the cinnamon), together with the currant and the dehydrated fruits. Keep on stirring, until we obtain a soft and elastic dough. If you see it too sticky, just add some more flour. We can do this part by hand of with a machine. 

4º- Put the dough to rest in a bowl that we previously grassed, and cover it with a plastic wrap. Let it rest for about an hour, or until it doubled its size.
 

 5º- Do some little ball with your hands, about the same size each: if you want you can weigh them to be sure. In my case, each ball is some 80 grams each. Put the balls in an oven tray above the cooking paper and let it rest again for another hour. Please be sure that each ball have enough space around him, a couple of inches will be perfect.

6º- After that, put three spoonful of flour in a bowl, and gently add some water until you obtain a sort of cream. Put this cream in a piping bag and decorate the buns with the trademark cross.

7º- Put the tray in the preheated oven at 200°C, for about 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

8º- To moisten our buns, put the Golden Syrup and some water in a little pot, and put on heat until it melts completely. If we don't have Golden Syrup, we can use honey, some jam or simply water and sugar.

Charles, Prince of Wales, loves to eat our Hot Cross Buns two by two!

9º- When the buns are still very hot we paint with the moisture their surface with a cooking brush and...here they are! ;)

We can preserve well the buns in a tin can during 4 or 5 days. If they're not just made, I prefet to warm them up a little bit, since they are to be eaten hot. You can eat them alone, with jam, sandwich-like with ham or salami...that a matter of taste! Whether you followed the tradition or not, they are just excellent! And even if they are typical of Easter time...who can forbid us eating them all year round? Enjoy them!

Greetings,

AnGie