News January 2011

January 5th - The procession of The Three Kings

This is the night before The Epiphany, January 6th, and the moment the children in Spain have been waiting for all year. Perhaps because there aren’t so many chimneys in a warm country Father Christmas is not such a big feature here but the Kings, Los Reyes Magos, bearing gifts is the highlight of the festive season.

The Cast: Melchor is the old man with a white beard who brings gold to Jesus, representing his royalty. Gaspar brings incense representing the divinity of Jesus and Baltasar, the black king brings myrrh, which represents suffering and death.

On the night of January 5th don’t forget to leave water and straw out for their camels and leave your shoes outside the bedroom door. If you have been good you will be rewarded with presents if not you be left a lump of coal. In the shops see small sacks of black-dyed honeycomb sweets for the naughty ones in the family.

In Puerto de la Cruz and most of the towns there are parades (Cabalgata de los Reyes). In Santa Cruz the Kings have been known to arrive in the football stadium by helicopter so they are keeping g up with the times.

Recipe for sweet bread - Roscón de Reyes (Crown of Kings)

This traditional confection is eaten on the day of Los Reyes - The Kings - January 6th and people come from all over the island to buy the very best Roscón de Reyes (pictured) from Pasteleria El Aderno in Buenavista del Norte, Tenerife. If you can't get there, you can have a go at making your own.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg flour
• Glacé Fruits
• 40 gr bakers yeast
• 100 gr sugar
• 150 cc. milk
• 1 small cup vintage rum
• 3 eggs
• 1 small cup orange blossom water
• 120 gr. of butter
• grated orange and lemon rind
• 10 gr. of salt
• 1 heat-resistant "surprise"

(The ones from El Aderno have three small ceramic figures of the Three Kings and one white kidney bean, wrapped in foil inside. Some say the bean is "bad luck". I prefer El Aderno's suggestion that the person who gets the bean should pay for the Roscón.)

Method:

Knead half of the flour with the yeast and 100 cc. of lukewarm milk. Make a ball, make cuts in the top part, cover with a cloth and leave rest for 90 minutes in a warm place.
Beat the eggs with the melted butter, then add the salt, sugar, rum, the rest of the milk, orange blossom water, the orange and lemon rind, binding it with the remaining flour and knead for a good short while. Add this mixture to the rest of the dough and work everything together (energetically, it says) until you obtain a fine and elastic mass. Make it into a ball again, place in a container, cover with a cloth and leave it to rest, this time for three hours until it's double its size again.

Grease an oven tray. Take the paste, knead slightly and make it into the form of a crown by making a roll, twisting and joining the ends, then place it on the tray. Cover it with a cloth and leave it to rise for another two hours.
Paint with beaten egg, decorate with the Glacé fruits, place the surprise somewhere inside and place in the oven, preheated to a medium-high temperature for about 40 minutes.

If it browns quickly, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil until the baking finishes.

All of us at the FU International Academy Tenerife would like to wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2011.