rosca de reyes

last thursday we celebrated epiphany (el dia de reyes magos in spanish). in mexico, the families gather in the evening to cut "rosca de reyes" (a big sweet donut-shaped bread). there are tiny plastic dolls hidden in the rosca...one, two, three or more...it all depends on the size of the bread. each member of the family cuts a piece hoping not to find the doll. whoever finds it, has to prepare "tamales" for dinner on february 2nd...
i like this tradition a lot...it is a family time, time of sharing and caring...time with hot chocolate or tea and a piece of delicious cake...

this year i tried to prepare my own rosca for the first time...i didn't have to do it before, because in mexico, you can buy it in every bakery...

this was a real challenge for me...to make it to look and taste right :)

here are the ingredients:

800 grams of wheat flour
250 grams of unsalted butter
150 grams of white sugar
3     whole eggs
7     egg yolks
2     tablespoons of vanilla extract
2     tablespoons of orange zest
35 grams of yeast (not the dry one)
and a pinch of salt




to decorate the cake i used:

1 beaten egg
candied fruit
melted unsalted butter


first i prepared the yeast from about half of cup of lukewarm water, two tablespoons of flour and the yeast. and i waited till it doubled its size :)




after that, in a large bowl i prepared the flour, eggs, yolks, vanilla, orange zest, butter, salt and the yeast...

and mixed in all thoroughly...it took me at least 40 minutes to get the dough just right (of course if you have a kitchen robot or a bread maker you can prepare the dough there). after that i left the dough in a warm place covered with a cloth...after one hour it doubled its size. i mixed it again, covered it and left it growing for another hour...

then i finally could start shaping my rosca. it looked like this... (this is the perfect time to insert the plastic dolls to the bread)
i left it covered in a warm place for another 30 minutes. then i decorated it :)




i brushed it with the beaten egg and put the candied fruit on the top in stripes...the white stripes that you can see on the rosca are made of sugar. just cut in the dough and sprinkle the cut with it :)




it is baked at the temperature of 150 degrees centigrades (app. 300 degrees fahrenheit) for 40 minutes. still warm, i brushed it with melted butter...





and how it tasted? like heaven...it was light and buttery, it smelled like vanilla and oranges...
next year i'll have to bake two :)