TORRIJAS RECIPE: Spanish Easter Sweet

A torrija is a traditional Spanish Easter dessert.

I used to make torrijas with my grandmother and her sister during Easter time back in Spain.

Torrijas look like a sort of cross between french toast and bread pudding covered with honey.

There are many ways of making torrijas. Some people use sliced bread, some others stale French bread. 

You can choose to soak the bread with sweet red wine or with milk. 

The following torrijas recipe with milk is the one I’ve always made while growing up in Spain, I hope you enjoy this torrijas recipe!

Torrijas Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs

• 1L whole milk

• 100g of sugar 

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon

• 3 tablespoons of honey

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1 strip of lemon peel

• 1 strip orange peel

• A thick bar of stale French bread or any other day-old bread you might have at home. Or use what you’d normally use to make a thick French toast.

Method:

1. Bring the milk, lemon and orange peel, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to a slow simmer.
2. Cut the bread in thick slices.
3. When the milk mixture has been simmering for about 15 minutes, turn off the heat and soak the slices of bread in this mixture. Be careful not to wet them to the point that they will break apart, but try to get them to absorb as much milk as possible.
4. Let the slices of wet bread rest and cool.
5. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and dip the bread slices in the egg mixture. In the meantime, heat up about 3 cm of olive oil in a deep pan on medium-high heat.
6. Fry the slices two by two, flipping them halfway so that both sides are nice and crisp.
7. Let the torrijas rest on paper towels to absorb excess oil. 
8. In another bowl mix the sugar with the remaining cinnamon.
9. Move the torrijas to a serving plate.
10. Cover the slices with the cinnamon and sugar mixture and reserve.
11. Add the honey over the torrijas. 
12. Allow them to completely cool before putting them into the freezer for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
13. Enjoy within two or three days (if they last that long!)

Try more Spanish Recipes:

You can get more Spanish recipes inspiration with some of the recipes from my book.

“The Little Mediterranean Cookbook: How to Cook Simple Mediterranean Dishes from Spain”.

Try one of the PAELLA’S RECIPES from the book here

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