Day: 11 December 2021

When I was a kid, around this time of the year (December), I used to go with my mother to the bakery (horno) of her hometown to make magdalenas and biscuits that we brought back to Madrid.

I have tried to make magdalenas at home several times but never got near the ones from my hometown. So this year, I added into my to-do list “go back to the bakery and see the process again”.

And finally, I decided to contact a fried who his mother used to manage the bakery and he told me that it was fine, I could go! So I was super happy!.

So it was very nice to go back, I had flash backs getting my hands dirty and doing something naughty as a kid… And the smell…. oh god, unique!

It was impressive, the process was the same, the same ingredients. And the same core people working there after 30y.

Women were the master bakers. At least two generations working there. And housewives. And it is a hard job. You have to wake up very early, bread making starts at 4am… But I think it is a joyful job. Or it is just me being romantic/naive.

The typical sweets from my hometown are magdalenas, galletas, rosquillos, tortas, calandrajos, mantecados, etc. All ingredients are simple, nothing fancy. The taste is amazing.

I made some notes about the different sweets and tried not to annoy the people working there. At the end I gave a hand packing the sweets and I liked it.

As well, I could taste the sweets… warm… after being baked…. no words…

So I left the bakery very happy. It was totally worth it, the trip, wake up early, etc. And decided to give it another go to the magdalenas and other sweets.

I dont have the recipes from the bakery, as I didnt feel comfortable asking. Sweets and girls, some thing 😛

I hope my friend’s cousin who runs the bakery gives me some guidelines.

So for the magdalenas.

Ingredients for 16 magdalenas aprox:

• 3 eggs
• 190g sugar
• 125ml whole milk (you could use orange juice too)
• 125 ml virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon zest
• 200gr (cake) flour
• 7gr bicarbonate of soda

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 175C
• Mix eggs and sugar very well with a whisk. You want to introduce air bubbles! (I used a hand blender with a whisk attachment)
• Add milk, olive oil and lemon zest. Keep mixing.
• Add bicarbonate, shifted. Keep mixing.
• Add flour, shifted.
• Be sure everything is mixed. Leave it rest 10-15 minutes.
• In the main time, pre-heat the oven at 220C
• Fill the magdalenas cups in a baking tray.
• Bake for 35 minutes or until golden on top.
• Spray some water in the oven to create steam
• Let it cool down.

In summary the process is not difficult. But, again, I dont have similar results.

After baking:

And this is the real deal 🙂

So obviously, still far from the good ones.

Things I think I need to change:

• Cake flour?
• Tartaric acid and soda like this.
• The good ones look like a bit more “oily” than mine. Add a bit more oil?
• No idea how to make them raise as the good ones

They taste good though.

I will try again!

BTW, these are tortas! I must try them too!

When I visit Madrid, I try to buy fried almonds as it reminds me of a common “tapa” you had many years ago in most bars in Spain. Nowadays, it is kind of a luxury.

So checking a book of Spanish tapas at home, I found a recipe for salty almonds. I noticed they are not fried… but still went ahead.

Ingredients:

• 300g of whole almonds (with or without skin)
• 100ml water
• 1 tsp of sea salt

Process

• Grill for 5-10 minutes the almonds in the oven. Just be sure they got toasted a bit.
• Heat up a frying pan, add the almonds. Toast just a bit.
• Add the salt to the water and mix.
• Add the salty water to the hot frying pan. Keep stirring. The water should evaporate quickly and leave a salty coating in the almonds.
• Once the pan is dried. Remove from the heat. Leave the almonds to cool down and store in a jar. Enjoy!

For next batch, I need to find the recipe of fried almonds (that are salty too)