I’m not really sure when my passion for bread floured into obsession but I’m sure some part of it I owe to writing this blog and the focus that brought.  Yet, I think what really brought on the triple yeast rise was the friends I made out in this blogging sphere.  

A little over three years ago from somewhere there came an idea from gathering “friends around my kitchen table” to bake bread.  At the time I was on a wild potato kick.  I’d gone through every book I had marking every bread with potato in it.  Well, the friends gathered round the kitchen table every month, brought buddies with them along the way, lives unfolded, breads were baked.  And here we are three years later gathered around Karen’s kitchen table baking again.  Karen has a great story about how she came to this recipe, if you haven’t seen it be sure to read it.   Eventually Karen found the recipe on Nicole’s site Delicious Days and we’ve gotten her go ahead to use her recipe.  Thank you Nicole.  I’ve used butter in place of the pork fat, added a little flax meal and used instant yeast in place of the fresh.

Ensaimadas

Recipe source: inspired by Eliza's recipe

Active time: about 45 minutes, rising: several hours, baking: about 15 minutes.

yields about 10 Ensaimadas: I made 12

500g all-purpose flour (plus additional as needed )

75g sugar

2 tablespoons flax meal

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

200 ml lukewarm milk

2 eggs

2 tbsp olive oil

150g soft butter

powdered sugar for dusting

Add the flour together with sugar, yeast and salt into a large bowl (I used my KitchenAid bowl) and mix well. Pour half the milk into the flour mix and stir lightly, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rest for about 15 minutes or until you see bubblying.

Add the other ingredients (the remaining milk, eggs, olive oil) and knead well.  I found this to be a slightly sticky dough that came together easily and quickly, becoming beautifully elastic.

Let the covered bowl rest again in a warm place for at least 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled.

Punch it down softly, then flip the dough onto a well-floured surface and sprinkle with flour. Cut into about 12 equally sized portions and form into neat little balls, before letting them rest – sprinkled with flour, covered with a kitchen towel – once more for at least 30 minutes.  I didn’t flour the balls and covered them with a plastic box.

Shaping the Ensaimadas: Flatten one doughball, then roll out with a rolling pin (use flour as needed) until you get a pretty thin dough circle and brush it generously with the softened butter. Roll up cautiously, then let rest for a couple of minutes and continue with the other dough balls. (Meanwhile line the baking sheets with either parchment paper or silicone mats.)
Coil up each dough piece until it resembles the house of a snail (tuck the outer end under), ideally very loosely, because any spaces will fill up as the dough rises further. Place about five Ensaimadas on one baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space between them. Lightly brush with butter and cover up again.

I mixed my dough in the morning, covered the dozen with plastic and placed in the refrigerator.

I baked four of these that afternoon and enjoyed one with a cup of tea.  I baked remaining eight the next morning, sharing four with a neighbor and treating myself to one with my coffee for breakfast ... either way they are gorgeous rolls.

Lovely tender crumb.  A little croissant like.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390° Fahrenheit) and bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Take out and let them cool down on a wire rack for a couple of minutes, then generously dust with powdered sugar and enjoy while still warm.

Now what would you do if you made these for the second time in several days? 

Don’t you think when you looked at this lovely blank slate you’d think FILLING too.  Well, I did.

A little cream cheese, brown sugar and almonds ... I know crazy but ...

so lovely with coffee, tea ...

shucks they were just good!

  

Guess you’ve noticed I’m a week late and putting up my post on the buddy posting date. 

Since this is buddy posting day, I hope you’ve checked out all the other babes baking these over the last week, and have been enjoying these lovely little snails!  If you’ve missed them the babes are all listed there in my right side bar.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting.  I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland!  If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.

I should be on time for our next posting date of 22 March. 

Happy Baking!