Mona de Pascua (or pan quemado)
Sweet, soft, and delicious, the mona de Pascua, or Spanish Easter cake, is a traditional Easter dessert often eaten outside with family and friends during Easter week in Spain.
Servings: 4 monas
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Ingredients
Yeast starter
- 1 package dry bread yeast or 15g fresh bread yeast
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Dough
- 2¼ cups high gluten flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 orange zested
- 1 lemon zested
- ⅓ cup milk
- ⅓ cup melted butter or vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)
For decorating
- 1 egg for egg wash
- 4 eggs (regular or chocolate)
- sugar
- colored sprinkles
Instructions
Precook the eggs for decorating traditional monas
- If using hard-boiled eggs to decorate your monas, pre-cook them first. Place the eggs in a pan of water and bring it to a boil. Boil the eggs for around 3-4 minutes before removing them from the water.
Make the yeast starter
- Prep the yeast by mixing it with a tablespoon of flour, a tablespoon of sugar, and 3 tablespoons of lukewarm milk.
- Once everything is well mixed, cover the mixture and leave it undisturbed in a warm place until gas bubbles form and it doubles in size. It should take around 30 minutes to an hour.
Make the Dough
- After around 15-20 minutes, you can begin to work on the rest of the dough. Combine the dry ingredients: the zest of one lemon and one orange, the flour, the sugar, and the salt. When zesting the orange and lemon, try to use only the outer colored part of the zest. The white pith is bitter.
- Then, combine the wet ingredients. This includes one of the eggs, the milk, and the melted butter or oil as well as the orange blossom water if you're using it.
- Finally, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. This is a sticky dough, but it will come together and be much easier to work with once you work it for a little while.
- After several minutes of working the dough, you'll notice that it's much easier to incorporate anything sticking to the sides of the bowl. Continue to play with the dough for a couple more minutes. Then, add the risen yeast starter to the dough and mix it to incorporate it.
The first rise
- After incorporating the yeast starter completely and working the dough for several minutes, place the dough in a pre-oiled clean bowl that is large enough to allow the dough to rise.
- Cover the bowl with a cloth or a beeswax cover and place it in a warm place, leaving it undisturbed so that it can rise.
- Once the dough has risen, you can uncover the bowl and punch it down to allow the formed gas to escape.
- Knead the dough for several minutes.
Forming the monas
- Sprinkle some flour onto a clean kitchen surface and knead the dough for several minutes until it becomes elastic and less sticky.
- For regular-sized individual monas, cut the dough into 4 equal-sized portions.
- After forming each of the monas, place them on a baking tray covered in parchment paper.
The traditional mona with egg
- To form a traditional mona, break off a small amount of dough from one of the portions. This will be used to make a snake of dough that will hold the egg in place.
- Form the dough into a ball and place it on a baking tray that has been lined with parchment paper. Press into the center of the ball to leave a depression for the egg. Place either a partially hard-boiled egg or a wrapped chocolate egg in the depression.
- Roll the extra piece of dough into a long snake-shaped piece and cut it in half to form two pieces. Crisscross the dough snakes over the egg making sure to touch the dough ball on either side to hold the egg in place.
The crocodile
- To make a crocodile-shaped mona, break off a small amount of dough for the four legs. Roll the rest of the dough into a long cone shape. (The point of the cone will be the tail of the crocodile.)
- Most people like to curve the tail slightly.
- Using kitchen scissors, make a horizontal cut into the opposite side of the dough to form the crocodile's mouth. This is where we will be placing the egg in the crocodile mona.
- Press on either side of the center of the dough and make a cut in the center to begin to form the legs of the crocodile. Divide the separated dough piece into 4 small pieces, and add one to each leg of the crocodile to increase its size.
- Make cuts along the back of the crocodile with kitchen scissors. This gives the illusion of reptile scales.
- Finish off the crocodile with chocolate chip eyes!
Pan quemado
- To make a pan quemado, form the dough into a ball. You can cut a cross into the top of the dough, or make a few cuts into the top to give it a different look.
The egg wash
- Beat an egg and gently paint all over the surface of the risen dough shapes, taking care not to press too hard so the shapes won't fall.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar over the top of the dough. For the pan quemado, the sugar is normally sprinkled in a ring around the top of the bread.
Baking
- When you notice that the bread is nearing the end of the final rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180ºC).
- Bake the bread for around 20 minutes, until golden in color.
- Remove the baked bread from he oven and cool it on cooling racks.
Notes
The nutritional information has been calculated without optional decorations as they may vary.
The amount of time that it takes to rise will depend greatly on the temperature of your environment. In cooler environments, it can take several hours to rise adequately. In warmer temperatures, the process will complete much more quickly.
The dough will be sticky. Try to resist the temptation of adding a lot of flour to it when kneading and shaping it. Use as little as possible. You can use a spatula or knife to scrape off any dough that has stuck to the counter.
Some people prefer cooking the bread a bit longer to give a darker, more toasted appearance. (Thus, the pan quemado name.) Bake the bread to suit your preference.
Serving
Monas are often given away in a small, wicker Easter basket. Traditionally, the mona is brought to enjoy with friends and family outdoors, enjoying the beautiful spring weather if possible!
Nutrition
Serving: 1mona | Calories: 527kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 126mg | Sodium: 457mg | Potassium: 204mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 722IU | Vitamin C: 32mg | Calcium: 77mg | Iron: 2mg
Calories: 527kcal