Torrijas: The Spanish Dessert You’ve Been Missing
Think fast:
Name three Spanish desserts.
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. You start with flan—that’s easy. But where next? Maybe you’re thinking of crema catalana, the Catalonian version of the French crème brûlée.
If you’re more familiar with Spanish cuisine you might get to turrón, tocino de cielo, or the Galician torta de Santiago. But that’s some next level dessert knowledge right there.
For most people, it’s much harder to think of iconic Spanish desserts than it is for France, Italy, or the U.K. Which is why I’m here to tell you a simple truth:
You need to be eating torrijas.
What are torrijas?
Like all great Spanish dishes, torrijas are simple, delicious, and all about letting a few great ingredients speak for themselves.
Think the English bread-and-butter pudding, or French toast, but with a certain Spanish flair and full-bodiedness! Most simply, they’re slices of bread soaked in a mix involving some combo of eggs, sugar, milk, honey, and wine.
And then it’s fried—this is Spain, after all. (Luckily it’s fried in olive oil rather than butter).
They’re especially popular during the biggest week of the Spanish year, Semana Santa. During this Easter Holy Week, torrijas virtually fly out of bar kitchens as locals gobble them up with calorific glee. Why? Well, the reason is in the pudding.
A Quick History of Torrijas
Some say that torrijas go all the way back to Roman times! That would make sense, given how much those guys loved bread, wine, honey, and olive oil.
At any rate, torrijas were certainly re-popularised by the 1500s, in Catholic Spain. Mothers going into labour would be fed torrijas for energy, and then fed them again after giving birth to help restore them to full health.
Even if you weren’t pregnant or mid-labour, torrijas were a great way to use up stale bread. Much like the Spanish use of days-old bread to create soups such as salmorejo and ajoblanco, making ingredients last was a useful skill in times when food was scarce.
And with the Catholic connotations of bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ, torrijas took on a whole new role during Easter. It just made sense to eat them during Semana Santa, especially as they made such a good replacement for meat during Lent.
Today, you might not find torrijas outside of Holy Week, particularly in more traditional cities such as Seville.
Your best option? Making them yourself! Check out my recipe for homemade torrijas below.
It’s time to up your Spanish dessert game, and these torrijas are the perfect place to start.
And if you’re after more sweet treats, take a look at my picks for the nine best Spanish desserts in the country!
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings | people |
- 1 loaf baguette bread slightly stale, day-old
- 1 litre whole milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 1 lemon, peel only
- 1 orange, peel only
- 4 large eggs
- virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup water
Ingredients
| |
- In a large saucepan, bring the milk to a low simmer with the lemon zest and cinnamon stick. Once simmering, add the sugar, stirring to combine. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Slice the bread into thick pieces, roughly 3-3.5 cm wide (one-and-a-half inches). Piece by piece, gently soak the bread in the milk and sugar mixture. Let them soak for as long as possible, without breaking apart. Set the pieces aside on a large plate to rest and cool.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs. At the same time, heat 1.5 cm of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Two at a time, dip the bread slices in the beaten eggs and then fry in the oil, for roughly 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Once fried, let the slices rest on paper towels to absorb any excess oil.
- In a separate saucepan, start to prepare a syrup by bringing the honey and water to the boil. Boil for 4-5 minutes or until the mixture is slightly thicker. Remove from heat, and completely cover the bread slices in the syrup. Serve the finished torrijas either hot or cold, by themselves or with fresh berries and vanilla ice cream.