Sugar-coated Bread Fritters

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