Monday, October 15, 2012

Pan de Santa Teresa (St. Teresa’s Bread)

This recipe, adapted from Cooking with the Saints, was submitted by Hi Cookery in honor of today's feast of St. Teresa of Ávila!  This recipe is similar to the Pan de Santa Teresa, adapted from A Continual Feast, which can be found in the archives.  


October 15: Feast Day of St. Teresa of Ávila/Jesus

We had blogged previously about pain perdu, a French toast-style bread associated with St. Anthony of Padua. Pan de Santa Teresa is very similar and it is linked to St. Teresa of Ávila/Jesus. Making her bread requires two separate steps of flavoring the milk then dipping it in egg, instead of coating the slices into one mixed batter, followed by frying. The subtle yet sweet citrusy-cinnamon taste of St. Teresa’s bread is a nice change to regular French toast. Prepare Pan de Santa Teresa as a feast day food in honor of St. Teresa of Ávila/Jesus.

Recipe

(Adapted from Cooking With the Saints by Ernst Scheugraf)

Ingredients
  • 8-10 French bread slices (3/4-inch thick)
  • 2 cups milk (we used Lactaid brand)
  • 3 tablespoons sugar, granulate white
  • 1 lemon peel piece
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • olive oil
  • cinnamon sugar

Directions

Mix the milk with the sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Heat over the stove top or in the microwave on medium heat. Simmer for about five minutes until the lemon and cinnamon flavors are well-infused. Let cool. Strain over the bread slices in a large pan, allowing them to soak up the flavored milk. Beat the eggs with the salt in a shallow dish.


Coat the bread on both sides. Fry in olive oil until brown and crusty on both sides. Transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.


Notes
  • Day-old French or Italian loaves are preferred for this recipe as regular white bread slices are too soft and become mushy when soaked in the flavored milk and eggs.

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2 comments:

  1. I was looking at the how-to-do pictures and, this is funny, but you just did a traditional portuguese Christmas desert. Here we call it "fritas" or "rabanadas", but it's basicaly what you have here :)
    In some regions they serve them with a syrup made of sugar, dry fruits (nuts, raisins...) and Porto wine.
    As for me, I only eat them simple, hot and with the traditional sugar&cinnamon.

    God bless you!

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  2. Growing up in the Southern Colorado area my grandmother and my mother always fixed a recipe exactly as this one with the exception on the lemon juice. Later as a young mother I fixed it and then I found a recipe in a Spanish Cookbook titled Pan de Santa Teresa and also in a gourmet magazine where in the letters to the editor some one requested the delicious recipe for "Spanish-French toast which was identical to this one (minus the lemon juice) and also served as a desert!

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