SC - Brighid's Spanish Cinnamon-Fruit Rolls
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Sun Jun 18 11:09:33 PDT 2000
A while back, Lady Brighid posted the following recipe, which we have
now tried out:
Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del arte de cozina_, 1599
Translation: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)
PARA HAZER TORTILLON RELLENO -- To make a stuffed tortillon
Knead two pounds of the flower of the flour with six yolks of fresh
eggs, and two ounces of rosewater, and one ounce of leaven diluted
with tepid water, and four ounces of fresh cow's butter[3], or pork
lard[3] which has no bad odor, and salt, and be stirring said dough
for the space of half an hour, and make a thin leaf[4] or pastry[5]
and anoint it with melted fat which should not be very hot, and cut
the edges around, sprinkle the pastry with four ounces of sugar, and
one ounce of cinnamon, and then have a pound of small raisins of
Corinth, which have been given a boil in wine, and a pound of dates
cooked in the same wine, and cut small, and all of the said things
should be mixed together with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, and
nutmeg, and put the said mixture spread over the pastry with some
morsels of cow's butter, and beginning with the long end of the
pastry, roll it upwards, taking care not to break the dough, and this
tortillon or roll must not be rolled more than three turns, so that
it will cook better, and it does not have to go very tight. Anoint
it on top with fat, not very hot. It will begin to twist by itself
at one end which is not very closed[6], in such a manner that it
becomes like a snail. Have the pie pan ready with a pastry of the
same dough[7], somewhat fatty, anointed with melted fat, and put the
tortillon lightly upon it without pressing it, and make it cook in
the oven, or under a large earthen pot with temperate fire, tending
it from time to time by anointing it with melted cow's butter, and
being almost cooked, put sugar on top, and rosewater, and serve it
hot. The pie pan in which you cook the tortillones must be wide, and
must have very low edges.
Translator's notes:
...[3] Both of these phrases use the same noun: "manteca". This can
mean either butter or lard. I have translated "manteca de vaca" as
cows butter, "manteca de puerco" as pork lard, and undifferentiated
"manteca" as fat.
[4] "Ojuela" -- literally, small leaf
[5] "ojaldre" (sometimes spelt hojaldre). Its etymology is also from
"hoja" (leaf). The modern definition is puff-pastry. The recipes I
have seen for pies made with ojaldre call for a rich unleavened dough
with eggs and fat, about half a finger thick . Its coated with
melted fat, rolled into a cylinder the thickness of an arm, then
sliced into pieces two fingers thick. (Presumably these slices are
then rolled out, though the recipe doesn't specify.) It's basted
with melted fat during baking, the better to separate into leaves.
("Ojaldrar", one of those verbs which require a sentence to translate
properly.) Some recipes call for the base or top pastry of a pie to
contain a certain number of ojaldres. This tortillon recipe seems to
say that the dough can either be just rolled out thinly, or it can be
turned into a sort of ojaldre (though they are not normally leavened,
AFAIK). If the former, I don't think it is intended to be too thin,
since the roll is only supposed to make three turns.
[6] I gather from this that one end *should* be tightly closed,
leaving the other to expand into a snail-like trumpet.
[7] This pastry underneath seems to function as part of the pan, not
part of the tortillon. It appears in other recipes as well. A
non-stick cookie sheet might render it unnecessary.
My recipe (half the original):
dough:
3 1/2 c flour = 1 lb
1/4 c butter = 2 oz
3 egg yolks
2 T rose water = 1 oz
1 scant T dried yeast (1 package)
5/8 c lukewarm water
1 t salt
filling:
1/2 lb = 1 3/4 c currents
1/2 lb = 1 3/4 c chopped dates
1 1/2 c wine
2 T sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/8+ t nutmeg
1/16 t cloves
to use in making loaf:
1/4 c sugar
1/2 oz cinnamon (I need to measure how much volume this is)
1 T butter
~ 2 T melted butter
1/2 t rosewater
1/2 T sugar
Note that most of the quantities are specified in the original recipe.
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl; mix yeast with warm water, beat
egg yolks with rosewater, melt 1/4 c butter. Make a well in the
center of the flour and pour the liquids into it, stir together with
a wooden spoon, then knead for half an hour (!). Let rise an hour and
20 minutes. To prepare filling, bring wine to a boil, add currents
and dates and let boil two minutes; drain and add 2 T sugar and
spices. When dough has risen, pinch off about an eighth of it and
spread it out flat in the bottom of a greased 8"x 8" pan; spread 1/2
t melted butter over it. Spread the rest of the dough out on a
floured board to a rectangle 8"x15" (I did 7"x 11" and it wasn't big
enough), spread with 1 t melted butter, and sprinkle on 1/4 c sugar
and 1/2 oz cinnamon. Spread the filling on top of that; dot with 1 T
of butter in pieces. Roll up and pinch together to seal, so that the
filling won't all ooze out. Put on top of the piece of dough in the
pan and spread another 1 t of melted butter over the top. Let rise
another 10 minutes or so and put in a pre-heated oven at 350. Bake 45
minutes or so, taking out halfway through to spread with another 1 t
melted butter. After 40 minutes baking, sprinkle with rosewater and
sugar, then put back for another 5 minutes.
Comments: good. Too much filling per amount of dough for my taste,
but that's what the recipe says. The piece of dough it is put on
becomes part of the loaf, rather than remaining behind in the pan. I
rolled this up as I do cinnamon bread, and it didn't really fit the
description: didn't twist by itself until it becomes like a snail; I
can't make much sense of this. Anyone have any suggestions?
Next time: do full recipe; knead for less time and compare resulting
texture to see if the full half hour is really necessary; try rolling
from the side of the rectangle rather than the end to see if I can
get it more snail-like that way--maybe roll tighter ("more closed")
at one end than at the other. Get volume measure on cinnamon.
Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook
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