Roscón de Reyes is the typical sweet cake that we eat on the 6th of January, which is the day the Three Wise Men bring presents!! We polish our shoes the night before and place them under the tree. We leave some cake and liquor for the Three Wise Men.

Ingredients:

Starter dough

· 70 g of milk

· 4g of dry yeast or 10 g fresh baker’s yeast

· 1 teaspoon granulated sugar 

· 130 g strong bread flour

Main dough

· 120 g sugar

· Grated zest of a lemon and an orange (not the white part)

· 60 g of full-fat milk (you can also use semi-skimmed)

· 70 g butter room temperature

· 2 eggs room temperature

· 6g of dry yeast or 20 g fresh baker’s yeast

· 30 g orange blossom water

· 450 g strong bread flour as above

· A pinch of salt

· 1 beaten egg to paint the Roscón

To decorate

· Flaked almonds

· Candied fruit or mixed candied peel

· Candied cherries

· Sugar lumps (dampened sugar in a very small amount of water and decorate it with small amounts)

Method:

1. Starter dough: mix the ingredients with an electric mixer until they are well combined. Shape the dough into a ball on the kitchen top and submerge it in a plastic bowl with warm water until it rises to the surface.

2. Add the starter dough to the list of ingredients from the main dough into a mixer until they are well combined. Covered the dough in the mixing bowl with a thick kitchen cloth (sprinkle the cloth with some flour to avoid the dough sticking onto the cloth when it rises to the top) and leave it in a warm area until the dough doubles in size. It normally takes between 3-5 hours depending on how warm the room is. *My kitchen is very cold at this time of the year at 15°C and it takes about 10-12 hours, so I leave it overnight with a big thermic bag over the bowl.

3. Tip the dough onto a floured surface the kitchen top and push down the dough with your hands to remove the air and form a ball. Leave it to rest for 5 minutes and the make a hole in the middle, with your hands slightly oiled, try to stretch it onto a ring of about 40cm diameter (this is the hole in the middle). *You can also split the dough into two equal parts of around 550g and make two small cakes.

4. Line a large baking tray of around 30cm by 22cm and put the dough shaped into a ring on it. Brush it with the egg very carefully all around and leave it to rest until it doubles in size (about 2 hours in a warm room without any draft or up to 5 hours if the room is cold). After this time, decorate it with the fruits, almond flakes, sugar….

5. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake in the centre of the oven for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for 15-20 mins. Take it out of the oven and leave it to cool down on a rack and you can cut it through the middle and fill it with whipped cream (optional) and hide some money coins, little figurine, and a bean… All of them wrap up in foil…. Just like we do in Spain! At Christmas, the loser (whoever gets the bean) needs to pay for the Roscón!

NOTES

Use orange blossom water, it’s very important.

Always leave it to prove properly. The time it takes to prove the dough can vary depending on how warm the room is, you can use the airing cupboard or the proving setting on your oven.

“Roscón de Reyes” (Three Wise Men ring-shaped cake)