Sunday Brunch: Pan de Mallorca
I'm in Old San Juan as I write this, and we had an amazing late lunch at the famous bakery La Bombonera. I had an exemplary plate of roast pork complete with crunchy skin. For dessert we had the bakery's pan de mallorca, a flaky pastry the place serves up in both sweet and savory fashion. It would be a great dish to serve for brunch. This sweet pan mallorca recipe is adapted from Yvonne Ortiz' fine cookbook, A Taste of Puerto Rico, but you could make it savory as they do at La Bombonera by stuffing each roll with ham and cheese. I know it seems silly to combine powdered sugar and ham and cheese, but it totally works.
Pan de Mallorca
- Makes 9 rolls -Ingredients
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup milk
2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
flour for dusting work surface
butter to grease bowl and pan
confectioners' sugar for dusting
Procedure
1. Melt the butter and let it cool slightly. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the sugar, salt, egg yolks, milk, 4 tablespoons of the cooled butter, and 2-1/2 cups of the flour. Mix well.
2. Lightly flour a work surface. Turn out the dough and knead for 5 minutes. Add enough of the remaining flour so that the dough is not sticky.
3. Grease a bowl with butter. Pur the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
4. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan. Set aside. Punch the dough down. Knead it on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 18x9 inches. Brush with the remaining melted butter. Roll up the dough from one short end and cut it into 9 slices; trim the ends to make them neat. Arrange the slices in the baking pan. Cover and let rise for 40 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Bake the rolls for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let the rolls cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a platter and dust with confectioners' sugar.
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12 Comments:
Hey Ed
What type of ham and cheese would you recommend, and how much? I could see it working quite nicely, and it would go great with a bowl of their famous black bean soup....YUM
Mark
Boscompb at 9:20AM on 01/04/09
This sounds great!
saraann at 12:21PM on 01/04/09
A little powdered sugar with ham and cheese is no less funny sounding than a bit of strawberry jam with a monte cristo sandwhich, but hey - the combination works.
Mark - I would think a good melting cheese - fontina, emmenthaler, or gruyere, with good, thinly sliced ham from the bone would work. Heck, I might even think about brushing the dough with some melted strawberry or apricot jam before layering it with the ham and cheese, to get that combo of savory and sweet going.
Rhetor at 12:26PM on 01/04/09
"I know it seems silly to combine powdered sugar and ham and cheese,"
Every day millions of Americans eat waffles or pancakes covered in syrup alongside bacon, sausage and or ham just to cite one example, so I agree with Rhetor that this disclaimer is unnecessary.
simon at 12:34PM on 01/04/09
Ed - Did you have the espresso coffee from their 107 year-old espresso machine? They have a espresso machine that was taken from italy to PR in 1902. It has been cranking coffee since then and I must say...it is delicious!
asg749d at 1:44PM on 01/04/09
At La Bombonera they have either American or Swiss cheese. These mallorcas (as they're called colloquially) are sweet even without the powdered sugar. You usualy eat them toasted with lots of butter or like a cheese toast with butter and cheese inside. The ham in the recipe above is not the usual. These mallorcas are awesome and everyone who visits Old San Juan should try them. It's the signature dish of La Bombonera.
A nice little trivia... if you go to the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands in Spain, this bread is called ENZAIMADA, because all the bread in Mallorca is in reality "pan de mallorca". So when you travel there do not ask for a "mallorca" ask for an "enzaimada".
Ed - hope your having a great time in my hometown... and keep featuring all the great food we have in Puerto Rico!!!!
MadelynRodriguez at 10:11PM on 01/04/09
The mallorcas at La Bombonera are essentially foodgasmic. I had one each morning during my stay in Old San Juan with ham and Swiss cheese. The freshly squeezed orange juice and Puerto Rican coffee were heavenly.
berlyu at 1:56AM on 01/05/09
@Mark, At La Bombonera they use two slices of plain boiled ham and a slice of American cheese. I am sure Virginia ham and swiss cheese would also work just fine.
Ed Levine at 7:48AM on 01/05/09
@madelyn. Besides La Bombonera, which has become our daily go-to spot for breakfast, are there any other must-have foods and eating spots in Old San Juan that I haven't sampled? I went to El Jibarito the night we got here and it was pretty good, not great. I wanted to go to a couple of restaurants in Santurce near the big market, but they are going to be closed today and tomorrow, and I leave tomorrow morning.
Ed Levine at 7:52AM on 01/05/09
I don't know if you're heading out of San Juan at all, but in Rincon there's a killer Farmer's Market on the weekends in the town square (lots of great baked goods). Thank you for sharing the Pan de Mallorca recipe, it really sounds fantastic!
cakespy at 1:48PM on 01/05/09
Yes, that is called ensaimada too :) In Manila (a former Spanish colony, hence the abundance of it here), it is usually made with edam cheese.
Bettydee at 12:56AM on 01/06/09
I tried making this recipe twice, and both times my dough didn't rise. What am i doing wrong? I followed the instructions carefully and the active dry yeast wasn't expired. PLEASE HELP!!!! I'm so craving this mallorcas.
idaespada at 10:24PM on 07/31/09