Torrijas on the mind

Torrijas are particularly popular during the Lenten Season in much of Spain and consist of slices of bread soaked in milk, coated with sugar and egg, and fried in olive oil.

It must be the season that brings these delicacies to mind. I made these last November for a dear friend who was visiting me from Vigo while I was in Madrid for business and research.

She is spending a year in Spain teaching, and mostly dedicating herself to travel and a bohemian life. A rite de passage! She had heard of these delicacies from another friend, but had never tasted them. During that time of the year, it is virtually impossible to find these items anywhere in bakeries or stores. She wrote me an email and asked if I could take her out to eat torrijas. La quiero mucho, pero a veces me pide cosas imposibles.... Oh well, lo cumplí.

So I decided to make her a large platter of these item so that she could savor them and decide if they were up to her standards. Curiously I found a recipe online I had used several years ago-- one thinks of the web as transitory and unstable.

The site, Javirectas, published the item in 2009, the year when I first found the recipe for a class demonstration. Not too complicated to make, the Torrijas require several basic ingredients and make a good morning's activity. Accompanied by some wonderful coffee, I set out to make the treats for my dear friend.

Kitchen in my piso.

After slicing the bread and coating the slices with sugar and eggs, I was able to fry them and finish coating them with the honey/cinnamon concoction required. The kitchen in my piso had all the required equipment and space. The dessert was more casera than bakery-made. And what a mess! Luckily, the piso has a lavavajillas!

My friend enjoyed them and consumed several of these honey-laden slices.

Who said medievalists could not cook!