Name: Sugar-coated Bread Fritters (Torrijas)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 3 tbsp granulated sugar; 4 thick slices of country bread, at least 3 days old; ½ tsp ground cinnamon; 150 ml/5 fl oz/⅔ cup sweet sherry; sunflower oil, for frying; 1 tbsp butter; ½ stick cinnamon; 3 tbsp sugar; 2-3 medium (large) eggs, beaten; 2 strips orange rind, removed with a potato peeler leaving the pith behind; 150 ml/5 fl oz/⅔ cup full-fat (whole) milk; 2 strips lemon rind, removed with a potato peeler leaving the pith behind; ½ vanilla pod (bean) or ½ tsp vanilla extract

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food of Northern Spain

By Jenny Chandler

Published 2005

About

There are one hundred and one uses for yesterday’s stale bread in Spain and this has to be the most delicious of all. Torrijas are a close relative of French Toast or “eggy bread”. But here a simple breakfast dish is transformed into something altogether more luxuriously pudding-ish with the addition of wine or spices. I have given two versions of the recipe: one boozy (alcoholic), the other delicately aromatic.

The bread must be firm and chewy, that synthetic sliced “elephan