2024 Begins! Roscón de Reyes for Epiphany

We didn't do anything special for Epiphany this year, which was on a Saturday, but that gave me time to tr a recipe that I've had my eye on for a while now: Roscón de Reyes, a specialty from Spain. I'm eager to try making some Spanish specialties since I am Latin, after all, and I grew up going to a Spanish bakery near my house. The traditional Roscón is a whole bread in the shape of a wreath, filled with whipped cream, and decorated with candied fruits. I never did see this treat in our neighborhood bakery, nor had I ever tried it, and I got to know about it online instead, on Instagram.

There are many versions and recipes that to be found online.  I went with a simple version from a website called Spanish Sabores and it's this recipe. The instructions turned out to be a bit muddled, however, so I ended up also referring to these directions from The Spruce Eats. And I took the idea of making several joined rolls, instead of an entire bread, from Más Dulce que Salado blog, here.

You basically make an enriched dough and shape it into 9 equal balls before its second rise and bake it like that. I had the balls close enough that I knew they would join together after they proofed, instead of  as separated as on the Más Dulce blog. The portion of the directions that I found confusing is that at the beginning of the work you dissolve the yeast into warm milk and water and then you pour that into a well in the center of the flour, and you sprinkle a little bit (1 tbsp) of flour over the liquids and let it sit for 15 minutes. I'd never done that before and the Spanish Sabores recipe didn't explain it well, but the Spruce did.  Then you continue on.  I didn't have the brandy it calls for, so I added bourbon. I was afraid to add an entire tablespoon, so I added half of that.  If making again I'd put the entire amount, because you couldn't taste the bourbon. You add orange and lemon zest to the ingredients, but I must say that I really couldn't taste them and next time I'd double the amount of the orange.  My dough, which was supposed to look sticky, was very dry, so I ended up adding some orange juice and several tablespoons of water.  But then of course, it was too sticky and not coming together into a ball around the dough hook, so I had to add a few tablespoons of flour. I wasn't worried about doing this and messing it up, it felt ok to tinker with it til it looked right to me.

I didn't have candied fruits to decorate it so I pressed sliced almonds onto the rolls before they went in the oven, then sprinkled confectioners sugar before serving.  As far as the taste goes, it's ok and very similar to mallorcas. You have to serve it with something otherwise it's too bready and plain. Since I knew we would not finish it same day, instead of filling it I served it with whipped cream on the side. Other days we've been having it with jam and a cup of tea.  

Would I make this again for Epiphany?  No, I don't think so.  There are so many other new things to try, or old favorites to revisit.  This was fun to check out, but once is enough.

Roscón de Reyes