Ensaimada de Mallorca
Ingredients for 6 people:
- Flour 400 g.
- Baker's yeast 15 gr.
- 1 egg
- Water 150ml
- Sugar 120 g.
- Salt
- Lard
- Icing sugar for sprinkling.
Preparation: Slightly heat the water, put it in a bowl and dissolve the yeast in it. Put the flour in a large bowl and add the water with the yeast, beaten egg, sugar and salt. Knead for fifteen minutes or until you get a smooth dough. Make a ball, put it in an oiled bowl and let it double in size for at least an hour. Knead it to remove the air and divide it into six parts. Knead each of them and stretch them a lot using a rolling pin. When they are well stretched, spread them very, very generously with the lard; you have to be generous in forming this layer of lard on the dough. Stretch with your hands so that the dough is very thin, it can break but it does not matter. Roll each portion into a roll. Let the rolls rest until the dough loses its nerve, ideally for an hour. Then stretch the rolls so that they are as thin as possible. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and form a spiral with each portion. Leave space between the curves of the spiral, so that the dough does not rise and the ensaimada is flat and does not rise. Place both trays in the oven with a cup of water and let the ensaimadas rise overnight or for about 10 hours. This step is very important, because the ensaimadas must ferment slowly to develop well. After this time, heat the oven to 200ºC and bake them for 10-12 minutes. Once cooled, sprinkle them with plenty of powdered sugar.
