You know French toast, but have you come across Spain's torrijas (or torradetes de Santa Teresa in Catalan)? It's also bread fried after being soaked in a sweet liquid, but takes the idea to the next level in comparison to its French cousin using a custard, rather than just egg and milk, and some interesting additional flavouring. That's the recipe chef Romain Fornell is going to show us today from Barcelona's Casa Leopoldo thanks to pastry chefs Rocío Parejo and Eddi Arteaga.
Ingredients (to serve 8):
- loaf of sliced bread
- milk - 970g / 34oz
- cream - 200g / 7oz
- lemon peel
- orange peel
- cinnamon - 1 stick
- egg yolks - 6
- sugar - 175g / 6oz
- Baileys - 30g / 1oz (optional)
- butter
Recipe
- Pour 800g of the milk and the 200g of cream into a saucepan
- Add a slice each of lemon and orange peel and a cinnamon stick
- Heat the mixture, stirring regularly to avoid it burning
- In a bowl, whisk together the six egg yolks and 150g of the sugar
- Once it's boiled, pour the milk mixture bit by bit into the eggs, sieving out the citrus peel and cinnamon, whisking in each batch before the next
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat it again to thicken it into a custard
- Pour the custard out into a clean bowl, cover with clingfilm (touching the surface of the custard to avoid it forming a skin) and leave it in the fridge for an hour
- In another bowl, add the remaining 170g of milk, which should be lukewarm
- Also add the Baileys, if you're using it, and 70g of your custard and whisk it all together
- Soak each slice of bread in the mixture
- Heat a frying pan with a knob of butter
- Once the butter is melted, put in a slice of your soaked bread
- Sprinkle over a little of the remaining sugar to caramelise
- Once cooked on one side (see video for the colour you're looking for), flip the torrija over
- Serve on a little more of the custard; our chefs recommend adding some summer fruits on top