Quarantine has led many of us to the kitchen where we try our hand at baking different types of bread, from Korean cream cheese garlic bread, cloud bread and banana bread, to different types of sandwiches and toasts. With this fondness for bread, there’s never a shortage of freshly-baked treats for dessert or light snacking in our homes. Sometimes, we even face the dilemma of not knowing what to do with all that leftover bread.
Fortunately, Nikki Luna, a feminist artist and founder of independent publishing house Power In Her Story, has come up with a solution to this delicious dilemma with two tasty torrijas recipes. The Spanish equivalent of French toast, torrijas is popular as breakfast, dessert or merienda. This easy-to-make and affordable treat is often served during Easter celebrations in Spain.
According to Luna, these delightful recipes of torrijas vino and torrijas de leche come from her husband Mikee’s very own abuelita. As the name suggests, these Spanish toasts use white wine and milk together with stale bread and sugar for that energy boost you need for the day.
In her recipe, Luna used day-old baguette slices, but you can also substitute that with leftover pandesal or whatever bread you have on hand.
Torrijas vino and torrijas de leche
Ingredients
1-day-old half baguette, cut horizontally into 1.-1.5′′-thick slices
Half cup whole milk
Half cup cream
2 tablespoon sugar
1 cinnamon stick
Squeeze of lemon
1 cup dry red wine
Half cup white wine or sweet wine
Half cup water
2 tablespoon sugar (for the torrijas de leche)
1 cinnamon stick (for the torrijas de leche)
3 eggs, well-beaten
Olive oil for frying
Half teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Preparation
For torrijas vino mixture:
- Slice bread either diagonally or horizontally. Place sliced pieces in a glass baking pan or any deep dish. Set aside
- Mix water, sugar, cinnamon and wine in a heated saucepan
- After mixing well, squeeze some lemon into the saucepan and heat it over medium heat until it starts to boil
- Remove pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly
- Put the bread slices into the saucepan and turn the slices over to soak up as much of the mixture as possible
For torrijas de leche mixture:
- Heat another saucepan and mix cream and whole milk mixture, sugar and cinnamon
- Mix well then squeeze some lemon. Put over medium heat until it begins to boil
- Remove pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly
- Put the bread slices into the saucepan and turn the slices over to soak up as much of the mixture as possible
After mixture:
- Allow the bread to absorb the mixture overnight or for a minimum of 20 minutes
- Add olive oil to a medium-heavy skillet and heat over medium-high heat
- Using your clean hands, a spoon or spatula, lift the bread slices immersed in torrijas vino and torrijas de leche mixture and dip into the beaten eggs, coating evenly
- Gently add the bread slices to the pan with hot olive oil
- Turn bread slices until it becomes brown on both sides for about two minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and drain them on paper towels or cooling rack, or directly place them on a plate
- To serve, add honey, condensed milk, grated or melted chocolate, or enjoy as is
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