Bolo-Rei Escangalhado (Christmas King Cake Filled with Chila and Egg Threads)
- Prep
- 45 min
- Total
- 3 h 15 min
- slices
- 12
- Calories
- 375 kcal
- Difficulty
- Medium
If you find that bolo-rei or bolo-rainha sometimes dry out by the second day, bolo-rei escangalhado could become your favorite on the Christmas table. Instead of mixing the nuts into the dough, the port and orange brioche is rolled out, spread generously with chila jam, egg threads, cinnamon, walnuts and raisins, rolled up and snipped open with scissors.
That rough cut, which gave it its name, escangalhado (“broken up”), in the pastry shops of the north and Lisbon, shows off the caramelized layers of chila and cinnamon and keeps the crumb moist for 4 to 5 days.
Recipe
Bolo-Rei Escangalhado
The moistest, most indulgent of the bolo-rei family: the same port and orange brioche dough rolled out into a rectangle, spread with chila jam, egg threads, cinnamon and nuts, rolled up and snipped with scissors so the filling shows.
Ingredients
For the enriched dough
For the moist chila and egg thread filling
Method
Making the dough and the first rise
- 1Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 100 g of the flour. Cover and let it grow for 25 minutes until foamy.
- 2Add the remaining 400 g of flour, the brown sugar, the salt, the citrus zest, the eggs and the port to the sponge. Knead for 5 minutes, work in the soft butter and knead for 8 minutes more until the dough is elastic and soft.
- 3Shape into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and let it rise somewhere warm for 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
Filling, snipping and baking
- 4Roll the risen dough out on a floured counter into a rectangle of about 45 cm by 30 cm.
- 5Spread the chila jam over the dough, sprinkle with the cinnamon and scatter two thirds of the egg threads, walnuts, almonds and raisins on top.
- 6Roll up from the long side like a Swiss roll and join the ends into a crown on a tray lined with parchment paper.
- 7With kitchen scissors or a sharp knife, make deep zigzag cuts all along the top of the crown, opening the flaps of dough slightly to the side to give it the escangalhado (broken-up) look and show the layers of chila. Let it rise for another 40 minutes.
- 8Brush with the beaten yolk and bake in an oven preheated to 180 °C (350 °F) for 25 to 30 minutes. As soon as it comes out, brush with hot jelly, decorate the openings with the rest of the egg threads and walnuts and dust the edges with powdered sugar.
Why it stays moist
During baking, the syrup in the chila jam seeps into the spiral of dough and keeps it from drying. Two thirds of the egg threads go inside with the chila; the last third goes fresh into the openings after baking, so it doesn’t toast. Because the crown is opened up, the heat reaches the middle faster than in a whole bolo-rei: 25 to 30 minutes is enough.
Without egg threads, spread a quick egg custard over the dough before the chila. Kept in a closed box somewhere cool, it lasts up to 3 days, or 5 in the fridge (take it out 30 minutes before serving).
