Welcome to the first instalment of Spanish desserts I grew up eating, today we’re making possibly one of my favourite desserts: Torrijas. Picture this: a piece of delicious bread infused with milk, cinnamon and vanilla, dipped into egg, fried and finally rolled in cinnamon sugar, can’t think of a better treat for Easter!

What are torrijas?

Torrijas are traditionally an Easter dessert, which I think it’s partly why they are so special, you look forward to them. Although they may remind some of French Toast, they are not quite the same and there are some key differences between both:

1. Rather than a breakfast item, they are a dessert that is exclusive to Easter.
2. They are traditionally made with stale bread.
3. They are infused with milk, cinnamon, vanilla or even lemon and then mixed with the egg.
4. They are deep fried.
5. The sugar is added post-cooking rather than before.

I have been reading a lot on why they are eaten just over Easter, and it seems like the main reason is religious, since people couldn’t eat meat during lent, there was a lot of bread left over, so the excess of bread was used to make torrijas. With regards to their origin, that is also unsure, it seems like the romans had their own version without the sugar and the moors kept the tradition making a similar dish.

So, what are they made of?

As you would expect in a traditional dessert, these are super easy to make, which is probably why they are soo good! But most of the things you probably have at home and it’s a great use of any left over bread. All you’ll need is:

• Stale bread – good quality bread from the day before would be best. I used sourdough.
• Whole milk
• Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• Cinnamon sticks
• Eggs
• Granulated sugar
• Ground cinnamon

Torrijas

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of stale bread of around 2-3 cm thick
• 500 ml of whole milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 500 ml of sunflower oil
• 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 100 gr of granulated sugar

Method:

1. Start by infusing the milk: in a pot, place the milk, cinnamon stick and vanilla extract and cook over medium heat until it starts simmering, once that happens, take the temperature down and let it cook for 5 minutes making sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Once ready, allow it to come to room temperature.
2. Cut the bread into slices and place them on a large tray one next to each other, don’t overlap them.
3. Sieve the milk to make sure the cinnamon is completely removed and pour it over the bread. Allow the bread to infuse for 15 to 20 minutes flipping it over half way through.
4. After the bread is infused, transfer to a clean tray. Beat 2 eggs in a large plate and dip the infused bread one by one making sure it’s fully soaked. The bread should be able to keep its shape and not break.
5. Once the bread is dipped in the egg. Pour 500 ml of sunflower into a deep pan and allow it to heat up, your oil should come to around 120 degrees celsius. Best way to test if the oil is ready is to take some bread dough and add it to the oil, if it starts bubbling it is ready.
6. Cook up to 3 torrijas at a time (depending on the size of your pan) for 4 to 5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Then, transfer to a tray with kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil.
7. Once your torrijas are read, mix the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon in a large bowl and roll the torrijas until completely covered in the mix. These are delicious both hot or cold!