This month’s challenge was to make a Mallorcan pastry called an ensaimada. (There was also a challenge to make a Hungarian chimney cake called Kürt?skalács that I did not attempt). The ensaimada is a coiled, layered pastry with an optional filling that’s traditionally made with pork fat (saim means pork lard in the local Catalan dialect). In the version I made, I used butter instead. For the filling, I used a combination of Trader Joe’s speculoos butter and semisweet chocolate chunks.

The August Daring Bakers’ Challenge took us for a spin! Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen taught us to make rolled pastries inspired by Kurtoskalacs, a traditional Hungarian wedding pastry. These tasty yeasted delights gave us lots to celebrate!

I made a few modifications to Swathi’s recipe:

• I used bread flour (higher gluten content) instead of all-purpose, since all the Spanish videos and recipes I read called for it instead. Apparently the higher gluten content makes the texture better.
• I added 2 tbsp of water to the dough since it was too dry (maybe bread flour requires a bit more water than all-purpose).

The ensaimadas were not difficult to make, and they were a hit at our picnic! All four were eventually polished off before we left. 🙂

Photos after the jump.