Milk Rolls

Name: Milk Rolls
Ingredients: 0.5 cuartillo milk, cooked; pinch salt; 150 grams sugar; small amount butter (mantequilla); 1 small ball yeast (levadura); 4 whole egg yolks; as needed flour; for brushing egg white

Source: Anonymous, 1920

History

This recipe appears in La Mejor Cocinera, Recetas de Cocina, a Spanish home-cookery book issued by the Madrid publishing house Editorial Saturnino Calleja; the earliest firmly located edition dates to about 1921, with later printings around 1923 and 1943. (Our archive lists the author as Anonymous, which is correct: Saturnino Calleja was the publisher/editor, not the recipe's author.) As printed in the book, Bollos de leche is a leavened, enriched sweet roll. Cooked milk is worked with a little salt, 150 grams of sugar and a little butter; a small ball of yeast, four egg yolks and enough flour are then added to make a slightly soft dough, which is left to rest in a warm place for ten to twelve hours. It is then worked again lightly, shaped into rolls, brushed with egg white (the book specifies applying it with a feather), and baked on a tin. The name "bollo de leche" is itself documented: food historian Manuel Martínez Llopis records it as the original name of a brioche-type roll served for breakfast and as an afternoon merienda in Madrid cafés in the late nineteenth century. After the roll was popularized at Madrid's Café Suizo it came to be called first "bollo del suizo" and finally simply "suizo." Beyond this, the historical record I could locate does not document a specific origin for the particular home version printed by Calleja, nor any social, class, or status significance for the dish.

Ingredients

0.5 cuartillo milk, cooked
pinch salt
150 grams sugar
small amount butter (mantequilla)
1 small ball yeast (levadura)
4 whole egg yolks
as needed flour
for brushing egg white

Instructions

Combine the cooked milk with a pinch of salt, sugar, and a small amount of butter. Work the mixture well until combined. Add a small ball of yeast and the four egg yolks, then incorporate flour gradually until the dough is slightly soft and slack. Let it rest in a warm place for ten to twelve hours.
After the rest period, work the dough lightly once more. Shape it into rolls and brush each one with egg white applied with a feather. Place them on a baking sheet and bake in the oven.