Mona de pascua – spanish Easter bread

Ingredients

• 100gr sourdough starter (here I used all-purpose flour)
• 20gr bread flour
• 60ml milk
• 50gr sugar
• 2 pieces of orange zest (2cm x 5cm)
• 2 pieces of lemon zest (1cm x 5cm)

• 25gr sourdough starter
• 180gr bread flour
• 20ml olive oil
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• 8ml orange flower aroma (very different from the orange itself aroma – you could skip it but I would not recommend it, cause it gives a very special aroma to the mona)
• 3 whole raw eggs – they will be cooked whole in the oven – do not break them

Steps

Previous day

• Warm the milk with the sugar, the lemon and the orange zest till the sugar dissolves
• Let the milk with the zest inside till it cools down
• Mix the sourdough starter with the milk and the sugar and the 20gr bread flour
• This mix is quite runny
• Let the mix rest until you see lots of bubbles on the surface (for me was 3-4 hours in a room with a bit of less than 20 degrees)
• Add in your mix the 25gr sourdough starter, then the oil and the egg beaten and mix well
• Add the orange flower aroma and mix
• Add the flour with the pinch of salt and mix well
• Let it rest and double in size
• Divide your dough in two pieces and make 2 “o”s like in the fotos
• Place it in the fridge overnight

Baking day

• Wash the exterior of the eggs and dry them
• Remove the dough from the fridge
• When you remove them from the fridge you will have to place the eggs on top of the dough right away
• Let the dough rise a bit more
• Bake in the lowest place of our oven for 20 minutes in 170 degrees Celsius and then 3 minutes in the middle of the oven