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Majorcan /Mallorcan Ensaimada - A Sweet Bread

Majorca (or Mallorca as the island prefers to call itself) is the largest island in Spain. It is a popular holiday destination for many because of its Mediterranean weather, beautiful locales and relaxed pace of life. The one other thing that Majorca is famous for is its "Ensaimada"
Course breads
Cuisine spanish
Servings 4 serving

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tsps active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup milk , warmed
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 egg large
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • all purpose flour , for dusting
  • 50 gm butter , softened ,
  • butter more for brushing after baking
  • sugar powdered , for dusting

Instructions
 

  • Dissolve the yeast in the warmed milk and set aside. Combine the sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Gradually add the flour and warm milk mixture. Blend thoroughly. Add the eggs and olive oil, mix well, and knead until soft and well-blended. The dough should be smooth and very elastic.
  • All this can also be done in the food processor, as I did. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in volume.
  • Knead the dough again, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough as thin as possible over a floured surface. The thinner the dough is rolled out, the more layers the finished ensaimada would have, and this makes for a bread with more layers. Dust lightly with flour, if necessary, to prevent it from sticking.
  • It would be a good thing if one can manage to roll out the dough into a rough rectangular shape. Don't worry about an exact shape, as once the dough is rolled up, it doesn't matter.
  • Brush the entire surface of the dough with softened butter. This bread is supposed to be buttery so go ahead and use the butter stated in the original recipe. It makes all the difference. I wanted to reduce the butter a bit further. So I mixed 25gm soft butter with 2 to 3 tbsp olive oil and used that on the rolled out dough.
  • Start rolling the dough from the longer side, bit by bit, from one side to the other (as if you were rolling up a poster). When the dough has been rolled up, allow it to rest for 1 hour.
  • If you would rather make this bread as smaller single serve portions, then divide the dough into four equal portions. Then follow the same method for rolling and shaping the bread, as mentioned above. Remember to reduce the baking time proportionately. I would suggest about 20 to 25 minutes should be alright, but please keep an eye on the bread after about 15 minutes.
  • After the dough has risen, coil it loosely leaving a little space between the coils, so that it resembles a snail shell. Once the dough rises and expands, the spaces will be filled up.
  • Transfer the coil to a greased baking sheet. Cover with an extremely large inverted bowl or bucket, large enough to ensure that the dough will not stick to the bowl's surface when it rises. I used a kitchen towel to cover my dough coil, and the dough didn't stick to it.
  • Allow the dough to rise for several hours (I let my dough rise for about 6 hours, though most recipes seem to recommend 12 hours!). You can find detailed instructions for rolling and shaping the ensaimada here
  • Bake the dough coil at 190C for around 30 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown. This bread will brown quite a bit as it is a sweet bread. If you feel it is browning too much, cover the top with aluminium foil halfway through baking.
  • Brush the surface with melted butter and sprinkle generously with sugar. Allow to cool. Cut the ensaimada into slices (like you would a round cake) and serve with hot chocolate, as traditionally done, or with coffee or tea. The ensaimada can be served warm or at room temperature and apparently keeps for up to 8 days. Mine lasted 3 days.

Notes

This delicious, very soft and buttery ensaimada is my contribution to Zorra's Bread Baking Day whose 22nd edition is being hosted by Stefanie at Hefe und mehr. This sweet bread is also being YeastSpotted!