Ensaïmada

Ensaimada is native to the island of Mallorca, Spain. It comes from the Arabic word saim which means pork lard, a main ingredient in the pastry. The sweet bread can be filled with caramelized pumpkin hair, chocolate, or topped with apricots. This is the most traditional version, plain with powdered sugar.


Serves 2 medium ensaimadas

What you need:

2 cups flour
9 grams yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg replacer
1/4 cup margarine

Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C). In a medium-size bowl, mix the water, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, and egg replacer (I used Ener-g). In a separate bowl, mix the flour and the margarine until fluffy. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing well. When a dough forms, make into a ball with your hands and let sit (covered) for two hours. The dough should double in size. After two hours, flour a surface, separate the dough into two balls and begin forming the balls into long snake-shaped rolls. The length should be a little over a foot (30 cm). Spiral the dough into a snail-shaped roll as the pictures shows. Place the ensaimadas on a cookie sheet lined with foil and let them sit for another hour to allow them to rise again. Baste the ensaimadas with melted margarine and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes (or until slightly browned). Top with powdered sugar and serve.

Comments

  1. Van DealDecember 20, 2009 at 6:03 PM

    Wow,I think I'm going to test my cooking abilities trying to do that this christmas! Ill keep you informed on the result, which will probably differ from the pictura XDD (i didn't know such thing as Egg replacer existed!)

    ReplyDelete

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