Ensaimada/Ensaymada

Ensaimada is a sweet pastry originally from Mellorca, Spain but has traveled its way to the former Spanish colonies such as Latin America as well as the Philippines. I understand that the recipes goes way back to as far as 17th century and in those days wheat flour was known to be used for this pastry dough and the products were made for special occasions and festivals.

The traditional Ensaimada de Mallorca was made with strong flour, yeast, eggs and a type of reduced fat lard called Saim( that's how the name is derived from)  which enhances the flavor and elevates the pastry layers.

The Philippines, as a former Spanish Colony for over 300 years has also adopted Majorca Ensaimadas with varieties that have evolved over the centuries and has come to be known as a popular and common delicacy in the country. The fillings for Ensaimadas varies from savory with variety of cheeses to sweets such as chocolate, coconut and various jams. The localized pastry is a brioche baked with butter instead of lard and topped with grated cheese and sugar and upscale version are topped with buttercream and sugar.

Well, my story with Ensaimada did not began with any of my friends from the Philippines ( they used to bring me brownies from Goldilocks, mmmh) it began with a picture in one of the cooking groups on Facebook. The lady does know how to take good pictures, its those pictures that make you want to eat the food right from the screen! That reminds me that I gotta invest on some good camera instead or relying on my dear phone, it does help since I have no option at the moment. So from the picture , I asked for a recipe and I did make the Ensaimada about 2 years ago, my kids love them and I used various filling and made up my own such as cinnamon and brown sugar, caramelized apples , pecan etc

This year I decided to go deeper and do some research on the pastry and I was amazed to find a lot of Hispanic videos that I did not understand what they spoke about but I did not stop there, I watched about 8 YouTube videos from various Latin chefs and home cooks , and went into the blogs hopping to be able to find a button somewhere to translate but all in vain. The various videos did extend some idea on how to go about it but I wanted more and I finally did find an English blog but the measurements and technique differed. However ,  it is through this blog I was able to find out that the fat used was lard and that I could substitute it with the vegetable shorting such as Crisco ...so there's my Ensaimada story and I intend to try and roll my dough with the butter like the Filipinos , it will probably turn out  be somewhat like the croissants just less richer... I love these pastry fro brunch or evening tea, they are just perfect. did I mention that I am proud of myself? Yes I am and I am smiling too as I type this. Happy rolling!

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 1/4 tspn yeast

1/4 tspn salt

1 cup milk ( warm)

2 eggs

2 Tbs olive oil

6 Tbls vegetable shortening

Method:

Using a dough attachment in a mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar and yeast

Add warm milk and eggs, and olive oil mix well to combine and knead for about 5 minutes, the dough should sticky but firm.

Cover it and let it rise to double the volume

Once risen, divide the dough into the amount of pastry you wish to have it could be a single but big or small ones

Use fat on the rolling surface and place a portion of the dough, apply some fat on top of the dough and roll to as thin as it can get ( coat the fat as you roll)

Close to one end, add the filling horizontally or diagnostically preferably with the pastry or zip log bag and fold to cover the filling then roll along till the end. Roll into a coil.

Cover the pastry and let it rise for the second time.

Bake at 375F for about 20 mins, let the pastry cool, sprinkle some powdered sugar and serve