The three kings day bread is one of the most typical Mexican sweet breads. Its shape represents a crown that symbolizes God’s eternal love that has no beginning and no end.
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This tradition arrived in Mexico with the Spanish customs during the Viceroyalty and today there is a great variety of recipes to prepare the rosca de reyes. In Spain it is called “Roscón de reyes”, and it is a little different from the one we make today in Mexico. This is de Mexican version, called “Rosca de reyes” in Spanish.
According to the Christian faith, the crystallized dried fruits that deorate the bread symbolize the jewels embedded in the crowns of the Three Kings, and the hidden small plastic babies (which Mexican three kings day breads usually have on the inside -see picture below-) represent Baby Jesus. When eating “rosca de reyes” in Mexico, whoever finds the figure of the Baby Jesus, must take care of it until February 2, which is celebrated as “Dia de la Candelaria”.
In Mexico, the rosca de reyes is usually eaten along with some hot chocolate and can also be filled with different things such as cream cheese, chocolate spread or nutella. In recent years, it is very common to find roscas de reyes made as if they were cake instead of bread like. To be honest we, personally, like it better when it is a bread.
Although there are thousands of different recipes to make a three kings day bread, here we bring you our recipe, in the way we consider to be the most traditional and in the way we have eaten it since we were little. It is made with a buttery dough and a lot of orange and vanilla extract and scent, it has no filling and has a lot of sugar coating on top (which is the part we like the most really).
The result is a doughnut or wreath-shaped bread, which is very soft, fluffy and airy. It is very fragrant and tasty!
We decorate it in the most traditional way in Mexico, and the way we like it the most, but you can get creative and leave out some of the toppings or add some others that you like better. And also, you get to choose if you want to hide some small plastic babies in it (you can place them, as many as you want, after the bread is done, by inserting them from underneath) as the traditions states.
If you like this recipe, you have to check out our pan de muerto, mexican day of the dead bread, you will love it!
Three kings day bread
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1/2 C (4 fl oz) (120 ml) whole milk, warm
- 3 tsp (0.32 oz) (9.3 gr) dry active yeast
- 3 3/4 C + 2 tbsp (17.60 oz) (500 gr) all purpouse flour, sifted
- 3/4 C (5.30 oz) (150 gr) white sugar
- 1 tsp (0.17 oz) (5 gr) salt
- 1/2 tbsp (0.12 oz) (3.5 gr) milk powder
- 3 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- The zest of 2 oranges
- 2 tsp (0.33 fl oz) (10 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/2 C + 1 tbsp (5 oz) (130 gr) unsalted butter,
For the topping:
- 1/3 C (2.60 oz) (75 gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 C (2.30 oz) (65 gr) all purpouse flour
- 1/2 C (2.15 oz) (61 gr) confectioners sugar
- 1 egg yolk
To finish:
- 1 egg, beaten, for the egg wash
- Ate (mexican candy) cut into strips
- Cherries, in syrup
- Figs, candied and vut into strips
- White sugar, for decorating
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a medium bowl place the warm milk with the yeast and mix with a spoon. Let it sit for 10 minutes so the yeast activates.
- Separately, on the clean kitchen counter place the flour with the sugar, salt and powdered milk and mix. Make a hole in the center and add the eggs, egg yolks and the yeast mixture. Also add in the orange zest and vanilla extract.
- Using your hands, start to integrate everything from the outside in to form the dough. Knead by beating and folding the dough over itself for 10 minutes until it comes together better.
- Stretch the dough a little with your hands and add in the butter (which should be soft) in the center. Knead by folding in the edges of the dough so that the butter stays in the center.
- Keep on kneading, this time for 15-20 minutes. The dough will feel very sticky but it is important not to add more flour and to knead it by beating it against the counter and folding it over itself. If it sticks to much just use a kitchen scraper to help it easier to knead (the whole kneading process can also be done in a mixer with the dough hook on).
- Cover the dough with a little vegetable oil, place it in a bowl and cover it with kitchen plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let it rest in a slightly warm place for 2 hours until it doubles in size.
For the topping and to finish:
- In a large bowl add the butter with the flour, powdered sugar and egg yolk. Mix with a rubber spatula or with your hands until you get a smooth dough. Cover the bowl with kitchen plastic wrap and set aside in the refrigerator until needed.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, place it on a clean, previously floured surface and roll it out using a rolling pin to form a large rectangle of approximately 23 inches (60 cm) long x 7.80 oz (20 cm wide).
- Carefully roll the rectangle lengthwise over itself to form a tight roll and then pinch the edges a little to avoid the roll from unrolling . By moving the roll, stretch it out for it to be even longer until you get a roll that is about 35 inches (90 cm) long.
- Place the dough roll on a large baking sheet with butter or baking paper underneath, and bring both ends of the roll together to form an oval with the roll (sort of the form of a wreath but a bit more rectangular). Make sur to keep the visible edges (of when you rolled the dough on itlsef) down.
- Cover the bread with kitchen plastic wrap and let it rest for about 1 hour until it doubles in size. Preheat the oven to 350º F (180° C) for 10 minutes before the end of the resting time.
- Remove the topping dough from the refrigerator and cut into 6 equal-sized portions. Use a rolling pin or your hands to roll out each portion of dough to form rectangles approximately 4 inches (10 cm) long by 1.60 inches (4 cm) wide.
- Once the dough has doubled in size once more, brush it with the beaten egg and place the topping dough rectangles on top symmetrically, leaving space between each one. Then place the rest of the toppings, which can be ate, cherries in syrup, crystallized figs or candied fruit in the free spaces left. You can decorate it how you like really, but this is the traditional way to do it.
- Sprinkle the entire surface of the bread with a little white sugar (or only the dough topping) and bake it at 350º F (180° C) for 30 minutes or until it turns golden brown. When it is ready, take it out of the oven and let it cool down completely before cutting and eating.
