”You have to taste a culture to understand it.”

– Deborah Cater

Torrijas (Spanish toast / bread pudding)

Step by step video tutorial

Torrijas or a Spanish toast/ bread pudding is popular during the Easter Lent period, but can be eaten throughout the year. This sweet and easy to make dish is made of stale bread soaked in milk and after frying coated in sugar and cinnamon. It is accompanied with a syrup made with sugar and honey.

Usually torrijas are eaten cold ( even though they taste nice warm as well) and can be stored in the fridge, therefore don’t worry if you make too many.

Serving Size:
–
Time:
Prep time: 60 min
Wait time: 30 min
Difficulty:
Easy

Ingredients

  • Approximately half a baguette (2 – 3 days old)
  • 1/2 litre (2 cups) milk
  • Orange and lemon peel, cinnamon stick
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 100 ml (2/5 cup) water
  • Oil for frying

Directions

  1. Warm up milk in a pot on the stove and add to it the lemon and orange peel, half of the sugar and the cinnamon stick. Simmer the milk on medium low heat for about 15 minutes stirring it once in a while.
  2. Remove the pot from the stove and leave it for about half an hour to infuse the flavours.
  3. Mix the remaining sugar with cinnamon in a bowl big enough to put in a slice of bread.
  4. In a separate bowl break the eggs and whisk them a little.
  5. Prepare a plate with a sieve for putting in the bread slices to drain the excess milk.
  6. Cut the bread in slices about 2 cm thick. I cut them a little thicker than I normally would for a sandwich.
  7. Remove the peels and cinnamon stick from the milk and pour the milk in a bowl big enough to put in some slices of bread.
  8. Put the bread slices to soak in the milk. Let them soak up so that they feel spongy and full with milk, with no dry spots left.
  9. Heat a frying pan on the stove and put in cooking oil to fully cover the bottom of the pan.
  10. Remove the bread slices from the milk and put in the sieve. Try not to overcrowd and squeeze the bread slices in a sieve. I start frying them in parallel to soaking in milk.
  11. Carefully put a soaked slice in the bowl with the egg and cover the slice with egg from both sides. Let the excess of the egg drip off and put the bread slice to fry in the pan.
  12. Fry for a few minutes from both sides till the slices look nicely brown and puffed up.
  13. When removing from the pan, put the torrijas in a plate covered with some paper towels to drain the excess oil.
  14. Once all the bread slices have been fried, coat them with the sugar/cinnamon mix generously on both sides.
  15. To make the syrup, heat the water in a small pot on the stove. Add the remaining sugar/cinnamon mix to the water, about 3 more tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of honey. Stir once in a while and let the syrup slowly cook for about 15 – 20 min till it becomes a little thicker.
  16. Remove the syrup from the stove, let it cool a little and pour over the torrijas.
  17. Enjoy!

Notes

  • For best results, measure ingredients with a scale. All recipes are made with weighed ingredients using grams. Cup measurements are provided for your convenience.