Mallorcas: A Puerto Rican Treat

I will begin by filling you in on what I have been up to.

Last week I had a special order for a birthday. Kevin, the son of a woman who works with my husband, was turning two and I was commissioned for the edible portion of the celebration. I love to make sweets for kids.

They can be colorful and exciting while maintaining the simple flavors that I enjoy working with most. As I have mentioned before I feel that food should be simple and who better to appreciate a simply delicious snack than the most truthful of patrons, a child? I made one dozen each of crème filled chocolate and confetti vanilla cupcakes. I iced both with a vanilla butter cream and topped them with their respectively appropriate jimmies.

The birthday boy’s cupcake was special: a vanilla cake baked with black berries inside; this cake, when cut open, was a beautiful purple color and carried in it the light flavor of the berries which balanced nicely with the vanilla. I iced his with the butter cream also, but I topped it with fresh fruit: a cherry, a black berry, a section of navel orange and a strawberry. All of this was carefully guarded by a small robot, just for fun.

Here is a picture of my most handsome client, Kevin Hui, enjoying his 2^nd birthday celebration:

I think we can safely say he liked it. In case you wondered, there were no cup cakes left over.

The real point of today’s entry is to share with you a most magnificent discovery: Mallorcas.

I was perusing Tastespotting looking for a dose of inspiration and, as usual, I found some. The picture posted on the site made my mouth water, always a nice beginning. I clicked on over to the site, thenoshery.com, and was delighted to find a wonderful, nix that, really really wonderful post explaining the entire process beginning to end. I am not so great at this approach. I always forget to take pictures and then I can only show you what is should look like if you do it right. Not always helpful, as has been pointed out to me by friends who do not cook as much as I do. They want more. Well, I am here to tell you my friends, Meseidy, at the Noshery can give you what I do not seem to be able to. She not only does it, she does it REALLY well.

In her words: Mallorca bread is a sweet, fluffy and buttery egg bread. It is perfect to have sliced and buttered with a cup of coffee or you can also have a savory sandwich version with a slice of ham and Swiss. Pan de Mallorca (mallorca bread) originates from the Ensaimades bread from the Spanish island of Majorca, which is why we call it Mallorca.

And as well I learned a nice little bit trivia from seriouseats.com ... if you go to the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands in Spain, this bread is called ENZAIMADA, because all the bread in Mallorca is in reality "pan de mallorca". So when you travel there do not ask for a "mallorca" ask for an "enzaimada".

I am not going to try and improve on what I thought was a wonderful post. I will share with you the pictures of my Mallorca. You guessed it, the finished product only, not the process. I did not even think of it until I was done. So much for that. I will try to change, I promise.

Go to her site thenoshery.com, you will enjoy her pictures of the process as much as I did.
Here is her recipe, that I followed nearly exactly:

Mallorca

• 1 pkg dry yeast
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 4 to 5 cups all purpose flour, divided use [I used unbleached AP & needed 1 cup more]
• 1 cup milk, lukewarm [I used almond milk because I was out of cow milk]
• 1 cup water, lukewarm
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 lb. butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm

In a mixing bowl, pour lukewarm milk and water, sprinkle yeast in add sugar and 1 cup of the flour. Set aside until the mixture starts to rise about 45 minutes.

Beat the egg yolks into the mixture, blending very well. Add the remaining flour little by little. Add 1/2 the melted butter and set aside until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Dust the board where the dough will be rolled out with a little flour to prevent dough from sticking, keep some flour handy for dusting. Divide dough into 12 equal portions [mine were about 4½ oz. each]. Roll out each portion, brush with butter and roll into a long strip. Form into a coil, insert the inner end making sure it’s tucked in, same with the other end of the roll. Butter the tops. Place on greased baking sheets. Use 2 baking sheets placing 6-8 rolls on each sheet. Cover and let rolls rise until they have doubled in size.

Bake at 375 degrees F about 12-15 minutes. Cool on cooling rack and dust with powdered sugar.

I should have placed mine a bit closer together, they would have been taller instead of so spread out. Next time I will do that and next time I will make ½ with meat and cheese and ½ in their simple glory. There will definitely be a next time and a time after that and a time after that. These tender breads have a light texture and a subtle sweetness. The flavor is close to that of short bread, buttery and nutty upfront and a sweet buttery finish. Heaven! They are time consuming, but oh so worth it.