balla larpeira

Miriam, author of The Winter Guest , presents today a delicious recipe to prepare a coca de san Juan or Bolla larpeira at home. Also prepare it in one of my favorite baking dishes, the Le Creuset cast iron dish , although you can use a ceramic or non-stick dish without much problem.

Possibly if you are not Galician or you do not visit Galicia frequently, this name of bolla larpeira will not sound familiar to you, but it is a very popular Galician sweet, a light brioche-type dough flavored with anise and lemon, and with characteristic bands of pastry cream that form a trellis. Succulent.

Larpeira in Galician means greedy because it really is and not difficult to make with the recipe of my friend Pam, from the Uno de dos blog , a Galician pro. As with all risen doughs, you have to be a little patient and careful, but with the amount of yeast that I indicate, relatively high, the risen is fast. If you want it to have even more flavor, use half the yeast; slow rises always allow more complex and deeper flavors to develop in fermented doughs.

Don't let the ingredient list deter you. You have to prepare a homemade pastry cream, but it is not difficult. Because contrary to what gossips say, the pastry cream cannot be cut because the starch in the cornstarch prevents it. Take pearl of wisdom. And it's all a matter of reading the recipe very well before starting and planning. You can.

Le Creuset iron baking dish , Madagascar vanilla extract , Emile Henry ceramic plate and Pallarès iron knife

Ingredients

For the preference:

• 100 g of flour of force
• 100g of milk
• 5 g freeze-dried baker's yeast (15 g fresh yeast)

For the pastry cream:

• 250 g of whole milk
• 90g of sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 20g cornstarch
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the final dough:

• The preferment that you will have prepared
• 2 eggs
• 35 g of sweet anise
• 25g of milk
• 60g sugar
• the zest of a lemon
• 325 g of flour
• 60 g softened butter

For the aniseed syrup:

• 50g of sugar
• 50g of water
• 50 g of sweet anise

Elaboration

Preferment preparation:

Mix the three ingredients, cover and let it ferment until it foams.

Preparation of the pastry cream:

Meanwhile we prepare the pastry cream. Put the cold milk in a saucepan and add the cornstarch. Lightly shake until dissolved.

Add the rest of the ingredients: the egg, sugar and vanilla . We take the saucepan to the fire and heat gently, without stopping stirring, until it thickens. We let it make chup chup a couple of times and remove from the heat. Cover with plastic so that skin does not form and let cool completely.

Preparation of the final dough:

When the preferment is ready, put it in a bowl with all the dough ingredients except the butter, and knead until the dough is well cohesive. Then add the butter in a couple of batches, kneading well each time until just incorporated.

We continue to knead until we obtain a fine and elastic dough. We make a ball, put it in a greased container, cover and let it double in volume.

When you have doubled the dough, place it on the lightly floured counter and squash it with your hand to remove the gas. We extend it in a round, oval or whatever we like and put it in a baking dish , like this one from Le Creuset .

Le Creuset cast iron baking dish , Emile Henry ceramic plate and Madagascar vanilla extract

With a knife, make diagonal cuts on the surface of the dough and place some pastry cream bands on them, which we will have previously introduced into a pastry bag with a small nozzle . We cover the source and let the dough ferment again. We can also sprinkle it with some sugar.

Anise syrup:

Prepare the anise syrup to keep it hot when the bolla larpeira comes out of the oven.

Put the anise, sugar and water in a saucepan and boil for a couple of minutes. We booked.
When the dough is almost ready, we heat the oven to 180°. Once risen, we put the dish in the oven and cook the bolla larpeira for about 25 minutes, until it is golden on top.

We take out the larpeira and paint it with a kitchen brush immediately with the hot aniseed syrup. Unmold carefully and let it cool on a wire rack . And to enjoy.