I am back with another beautiful bread this month - the very Spanish Ensaimadas which is a sweet, spiral shaped pastry made with flour, eggs, milk and lard (replaced by butter in the modern version).
This month avani Nandula of Cook's Hideout chose 'Family Feast Breads' as the theme for Bread Bakers, a group of bread enthusiasts with whom I bake every month. Pavani suggested that we bake loaves, rolls or any sort of bread that we'd like to bring to a family celebratory dinner or feast. Now since the festive season is on and Christmas is just around the corner I wanted to pick a bread that was celebratory enough but not too rich, complex or fancy as these breads are rarely eaten by my family. I had to choose something that would be enjoyed by them and could be made easily and I chanced upon this recipe in The Bread Bible by Christine Ingram & Jennie Shapter. I had bookmarked it a while ago simply because these rolls looked so beautiful. I am so glad that they turned out just as beautiful and delicious! These are definitely something I would make for a celebratory meal or eat for breakfast when I am in the mood to indulge. So yeah, it fits the theme so perfectly today! Thank you Pavani for this lovely theme! If you'd like to see what the other bakers are baking today, scroll down to the bottom of this post to access the links to their posts!
Ensaimada (pronounced as 'en-sai-ma-dha') is a popular breakfast/snack or a dessert bread that is pretty popular in countries that were prior Spanish colonies so you will find variants of the traditional pastry in Philippines and Puerto Rico as well. They are also called as Ensaïmada de Mallorca which means the sweet bread of Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain. And by the way, Mallorca is also spelled as Majorca but is pronounced as 'mah-york-ah' as the as the double L in Spanish is pronounced like the English 'Y'. So now that I've given you your grammar/pronunciation lessons let's proceed :)
