Ensaimadas

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 500 g flour (type 405)
• 75 g sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cube of fresh yeast (42 g)
• 200 ml milk
• 60 ml olive oil, good
• 2 eggs (size M)
• 200 g Clarified butter, soft
• Flour for the work surface
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 7 hours 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 8 hours 50 minutes

Spanish yeast snail

Heat the milk until lukewarm. Add 35g of the sugar and the yeast and mix until dissolved in the milk. In a bowl, mix the flour, the remaining 40g of sugar and the salt, then make a well in the flour. Pour the yeast starter into the well, mix with a little flour and let it rise, covered, for about 15 minutes. Then add the egg and olive oil and knead for 5 minutes (preferably with a machine) until the dough is smooth and supple. It should easily pull away from the sides of the bowl; if it is still very sticky, add a little more flour. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes until it has doubled in size. Once the dough has risen, divide it into about 10 equal balls and let it rise for another 30 minutes. Knead the balls one at a time and roll them out very thinly (you could almost read a newspaper through them) on a lightly floured surface, but it shouldn’t tear. Brush the soft clarified butter onto the thin flatbreads and then carefully roll them up starting at the wide end. Set them aside and let them rest. In the meantime, prepare the other flatbreads in the same way. Place baking paper on the baking sheets, brush the rolls with clarified butter, and place them on the baking sheet like a snail, placing the end of the roll inside the snail. Don’t place them too tightly, as they will expand considerably; it’s best to place three snails per baking sheet. Cover the yeast snails and place them in a cool place overnight, or at least 6 hours (I put them in the switched-off oven). In the morning, remove the baking sheets from the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (top/bottom heat). When the oven has reached the desired temperature, place the baking sheets in one at a time and bake the dough pieces for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and dust the snails with powdered sugar while they’re still warm. Enjoy the ensaimadas while they’re still warm. If you can’t manage to make them all, simply reheat them in a toaster. If you want to make a large ensaimada, the baking time is approximately 50 minutes.