[Sca-cooks] Spanish baking question: "breaking" the dough

[rcmann4 at earthlink.net]

I've been looking at some recipes for baked goods in Granado, and there's
some terminology that I'm not sure of.  He directs the cook to mix a certain
dough and "hervirla muy bien, que rompan la massa".  This translates
literally as "boil it very well, so that they break the dough."

Normally "hervir" means to cause a liquid to boil.  It is *not* used to refer to
cooking something in boiling liquid.  I suspect that this is a secondary,
archaic meaning, perhaps along the lines of "to agitate".  As for "breaking
the dough", I wonder if this might mean kneading or beating the dough until
the gluten breaks down.  The dough in this particular recipe is a sweet
dough made of beaten eggs, sugar, and flour.  It is very rubbery, and I find it
almost impossible to roll it out very thin, as directed.

I would like to ask the Spanish-speakers on the list what they think of the
vocabulary issue, and to ask the bakers on the list what they think of the
dough issue.  How do I know when the gluten is broken down?  How many
minutes kneading in my trusty KitchenAid are likely to be necessary?

The dough proportions, btw, are:
12 eggs
1/2 pound sugar
enough flour to make a firm dough


Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
mka Robin Carroll-Mann  ***  rcmann4 at earthlink.net