If you’re Hispanic, then you know holidays are big and the food is often the main event. For many Latino households, the holidays are a time to gather together with family, celebrate, and indulge in delicious homemade food. And everyone looks forward to dessert!
Today we are sharing a traditional Easter recipe popular in Argentina, the Rosca de Pascua. Similar to the Rosca de Reyes that many Latino countries enjoy during the Christmas holiday season on the Epiphany, Rosca de Pascua is a ring-shaped bread cake enjoyed by friends and family on Easter Sunday.
Easter breads are traditional among many countries and cultures, such as the English and Irish hot cross buns and various European Easter bread loaves, as well as the New Orleans-style king cake traditionally served during Mardi Gras.
With origins in Spain and Italy, the Rosca de Pascua is a sweet brioche-like bread typically decorated with pastry cream, fruits—traditionally maraschino cherries, nuts, chocolate and more. Some roscas even contain prizes inside!
Once upon a time the original recipe even included colorful un-peeled hard boiled eggs as part of the decorations, but nowadays most use Easter candies and chocolate eggs instead.
Rosca de Pascua recipe by Argentinian chef Ximena Saenz
Ximena Saenz is an Argentinian chef based in Buenos Aires. On Instagram and Youtube she shares recipes to over 500k followers. She also runs her own restaurant, Casa Saenz.
See below Ximena’s delicious Rosca de Pascua recipe. Abundant in rich pastry cream and topped with chopped almonds this recipe will wow your guests. And don’t be afraid to add more toppings to this classic. Fruits and candies are very welcome additions your family and friends will love—especially the kids, or any sweet-tooth lover!
See the recipe in Spanish in the post below (swipe through the images for step by step) or read on for the English translation.
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Recipe translation in English
It’s a classic but it’s good to make it homemade and get up on Sunday to eat it with some mates in your pajamas! One thing to make the dough more flavorful is to add citrus zest, it can be lemon or orange (I love it). But you can also add vanilla essence.
And for the thread to come out moist, we do not have to put extra flour in the kneading, which is the moment we can add it when thinking that it is missing. I hope you have a Happy Easter! I look forward to photos of your recipes.
PS: You can freeze! ❄️
Ingredients:
Flour – 250g
White sugar – 50 g
Dry yeast – ½ packet
Lemon zest
Salt – 1 pinch
Eggs – 1 unit
Water – 85ml
Butter – 85g
Stuffed:
Eggs – 4 units
Yolks – 4 units
Milk – 1 liter
Vanilla
Orange zest
Corn starch – 40g
Flour – 40g
Sugar – 200g
To decorate:
Almonds – 150g
Candied oranges – C/N
Procedure:
- Mix the dry ones in a bowl.
- Make a crown and in the middle pour the egg with the lemon zest, the sugar and the yeast dissolved in the water. Start to knead.
- Slowly add the ointment butter.
- Knead with soufflé movements without incorporating flour (At this moment you will think that the dough does not come out but you have to continue. Lift the dough with a cornet and throw it on the counter and repeat this process many times until the dough is completely united and smooth).
- Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with film. Let rise until doubled in volume.
- Make the pastry cream: heat the milk with half the sugar. In a bowl mix the sugar, cornstarch, eggs and yolks. Add the hot milk and cook until it boils for one minute. Add the vanilla essence and orange zest.
- Let the pastry cream cool, beat it and place it in a bag with a large curly beak.
- Shape the Easter thread: ball and make a hole in the center with a floured elbow. Place on a greased plate with a buttered flan mold in the center so that it does not close.
- Leave to rise, paint with egg and cook in the medium oven until semi-cooked. Remove from the oven and decorate with half the cream. Return to the oven to finish cooking. Let cool.
- Sprinkle some almonds with powdered sugar and take to the oven to toast.
- Decorate the rosca with the rest of the cold pastry cream and finish with orange peels and almonds.
