Hi, Foodies in the Hive!
Yesterday was my sixth Hive birthday. I started my journey here on Three Kings Day, when the platform was called something else. That day we shared a delicious roscon de reyes I had made at my home then. Today I want to share the recipe I used this year 😁
Although not for religious reasons, but rather for sweet tooth, every January 6th I make several roscones to share with family and friends. This year, I only made two and it was a pleasure to share this delicious sweet bread of intense orange flavor with my sisters, niece and nephew in my home.
This January I had no candied cherries but lots of chocolate, so....
Ingredients
I had no plans of making roscón de reyes this year because December celebrations went by in the blink of an eye, so I'm still recovering from all the cooking--and eating, God!
I didn't have at home several of the ingredients I normally use for the roscón de reyes, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Hey, but they turned out really, really tasty. And the best part is that it was much more affordable that way: margarine instead of butter, chocolate instead of cherries, nutmeg + cinnamon + vanilla essence + orange and lemon zest instead of orange blossom water. Honey was simply out of the equation this year as well although I did have a bottle.
For the dough:
- 500 gr all purpose flour
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk (M)
- 1 cup sugar
- 100 gr margarine
- 1 tablespoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
For decoration:
- candied oranges
- handful of sliced almonds
- sugar "snow" (made of sugar + syrup from cooking orange)
- chocolate bits
For the candied oranges:
- 3 medium size oranges
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- one beaten egg (or egg wash) to glaze
Let's Get to Work!
Make a pre-ferment with all the milk, sugar and yeast, plus 1 cup of flour. Mix well and let stand.
After about half an hour, it will become bubbly. At this point, it's ready.
With the help of your favorite kitchen tool, pulverize the nutmeg and get the orange and lemon zests. I used my cheese grater.
Add these spices and the essence of vanilla to the pre-mix and mix well.
Then add the remaining flour, the salt, and the egg and yolk.
It's time to start kneading. You'll notice the dough is really sticky.
Not to worry! After 5 minutes of kneading, it'll turn more manageable.
After 15 minutes, add the margarine. Knead until it is completely incorporated into the dough.
Now it's time to let the dough rise, which should occur three times if you're looking for a really soft crumble. Deflate the dough three times, to get a soft and moist bread.
In my case, the dough took an hour to double in size each time. So it was a 3 hour rise from the time I added the margarine.
Once the dough is ready, you must divide the dough in two parts (to make two loaves). I made a traditional roscon and another in a bundt cake baking pan. For the first one, I made a dough roll, lengthened it and spread it by the ends to give it a ring shape.
The pans must be well greased with enough margarine.
Make sure you have the toppings ready and the egg beaten to paint the loaves. At this point, while the dough was rising, I mixed sugar with a little of the syrup in which the oranges cooked to make "snow"; I also cut dark chocolate into pieces about 1 cm thick and slice a handful of unpeeled almonds.
All this together with the candied oranges would be the decorations.
Candied Oranges
Candied orange slices are delicious on their own, and when we put them in the roscón, phew! Making them is very simple; you just need to have time beforehand.
First, wash the oranges very well and cut them into slices about half a centimeter thick. It's important to remove the ends and seeds so they turn out sweet instead of bitter. Then, you must place them in a pot with enough water to cover them and add a pinch of salt. Let them cook until they boil for a couple of minutes. Gently rinse them under the tap to cool them.
Put them back into the pot with fresh water and sugar. I like to put a stick of cinnamon, and so I did.
We only need to drain the candied orange slices for a couple of hours, so that the syrup does not soak the crust of the bread. Place them on a rack until it is time to decorate.
Time to Decorate and Bake!
After one hour, the bread has tripled its size. It's time to glaze the surface with beaten egg and put the toppings. Start with the orange.
Always start with the candied orange slices. Then you can add the snow, almonds and chocolate bits. You can put a glass or a cylindrical piece in the center to prevent it from closing as the bread grows in the oven.
I did the same to decorate the bread in the bundt cake pan.
These two plump ones went into the oven, each for 35 minutes at 250°F
They were the heart of my sisters' day to celebrate in our own way, a day more of queens than of kings.
I love roscon de reyes (kings' bread) because it looks really festive on the table.
Substituting the cherries for chocolate was good. My nephew loved it. I still prefer cherries--perhaps next year :)
For me the concept of this sweet bread is abundance, so I like to put lots of toppings.
Both were soft and moist...And spongy.
I hope you've found this recipe helpful 😁
Bon appetite!
All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.
Thank you so much for your visit :)
