Ensaimadas
I made these today, and while something went wrong and the dough didn't rise very much they still came out quite tasty! I think it was something to do with the yeast- I tried converting from fresh yeast, which I don't have, to rapid yeast, which I do have. That may have been the problem. Or something..
I doubled the recipe to make 32
Recipe taken from "Bread" by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter.
Makes 16.
225g / 8oz / 2 cups white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g / 2oz / 1/4 cup caster sugar <-- I didn't have that, so I had to use regular white sugar
15g fresh yeast <-- I don't have fresh, so I used 5 grams of instant yeast
75ml / 5 tbsp lukewarm milk
1 egg
30ml / 2 tbsp sunflower oil <-- I used canola oil
50g / 2oz / 1/4 butter, melted
Icing sugar for dusting
* Sift the flour, salt and caster sugar together, make a well in the centre.
* Cream the yeast with the milk, pour into the centre of the flour mixture then sprinkle a little of the flour over the top of the liquid. Leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes or until frothy.
* Beat the egg and sunflower oil together, add to the flour mixture and mix to a smooth dough.
* Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in bulk.
* Turn out the dough and knock it back. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces, and shape them into thin ropes around 38cm/15in long. Pour the melted butter onto a plate and dip the ropes into the butter to coat.
* On the baking sheets, curl each rope into a loose spiral, spacing them well apart. Tuck the ends under to seal. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for around 45 minutes until doubled in size.
* Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C / 170 degrees C fan assisted. Brush the rolls with water and dust with icing sugar. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust again with icing sugar and serve warm.
I think they came out very nice. I don't know how they are supposed to look like though. However I think they look mouthwatering:)
The smaller ones are supposed to look like this:
and the big ones like this:
Apparently the real ones are light and flaky, whereas mine were hard and dense. But with enough powdered sugar anything is edible. :D
Actually, though, they did come out nice and sweet and delicious, so it's not a bad accident, whatever I did- I still can't figure out where I went wrong
good, and although they didn't raise evenly they did raise some as you can tell from the photo.
Can't help with the raiseing since nothing I make seems to work well in that department for me.
But the castor or caster sugar is simply superfine white sugar, which you can make yourself by running it in the food processor, or rolling it with a rolling pin with sugar in a bag. I simply buy berry sugar as its very fine and and its not actual sugar of berries, its for sugaring berries.
maybe you just need to increase the yeast? they look good anyways :)
im just waiting till i stock up on some veg oil, and these are next on my list to try:
http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2009/07/31/ensaimadas/