Sweet Coke of San Juan

How to make a Coke from San Juan . On the night of San Juan , in the Catalan community and in much of Levante, a typical sweet, coca de San Juan, coques de Sant Joan , is prepared as part of the celebration .

It is a bun that is generally oval shaped and reminiscent of a simple brioche- type dough . It is a dessert with a base of sweet dough enriched with eggs and butter or lard that is baked decorated with pastry cream and pine nuts.

Starting from this point, we can find different versions of the coca from San Juan . Sometimes it is covered with candied fruit, with or without pastry cream. Other times a thin layer of marzipan is added to the surface before placing the fruit. It is sprinkled almost always with nuts, mainly pine nuts, but sometimes we can see them with sliced ​​almonds. Those of cream, Catalan cream or angel hair, have their place in the windows of the pastry shops.

Be that as it may, this coca is a sweet and flattened bun of simple preparation, the mixture of the ingredients, the kneading and resting. As well as the oval and flattened shape, they are simple steps that, although they take us time, are still that, a matter of time.

I have to say that this coca from San Juan reminds me of the classic Galician larpeira , on the one hand for its decoration with a lattice of delicious pastry cream , and on the other hand for being a spongy and sweet brioche-type dough.

Any of these two sweets are perfect for breakfasts, snacks and, of course, to celebrate the Sant Joan festival. And remember that not only sardine recipes are lived on this magical night. I hope you like it.

Preparation of the base mass for coca de San Juan

1. In a bowl add the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, eggs, lemon zest (well washed skin) and water. We knead until all the ingredients are integrated, with 5 or 6 minutes of work will be enough.
2. Add the diced butter as we knead. We must continue the work until the butter is fully integrated.
3. Finally we add the minced yeast and continue the kneading process. We must work the dough until it is very elastic, so that we can stretch it with our fingers to form a thin sheet without it breaking.
4. Reaching this point can take us about 15 minutes if we are using a food processor to knead. If we have decided to get down to work and do it without any tools other than our hands, this time could be increased.
5. We will insert periods of rest between the kneading moments, these moments also “knead” the dough.
6. When we have the dough ready, very fine and elastic, we form a ball, put it in a greased bowl and let it rest in a cool place, it could be the fridge if the room temperature is very high.
7. While the dough rests, we put the pine nuts to hydrate, leaving them to soak in water. This step will prevent the pinions from being burned during the baking process.
8. Once the dough has rested, spread it out with your hands on a piece of paper on the baking tray. We will give it the characteristic oval shape.
9. Cover the dough with a cloth and let it ferment, in a warm place this time, until it doubles in volume.

Preparation of the pastry cream

1. We separate 100 ml. of milk and dilute the cornstarch in them. We reserve. We separate the whites from the yolks of eggs. We remove the whites since they will not be necessary in this preparation.
2. We beat the yolks with the sugar and add the corn starch diluted in milk. Stir well and reserve.
3. In a saucepan we put the rest of the milk and bring it to a boil. Remove the casserole from the heat and add the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick. We let the milk infuse for about 15 minutes.
4. Strain the milk, put it back in the saucepan at medium temperature and add little by little, without stopping stirring, the egg mixture that we have reserved. In a few minutes we will see how the cream begins to curdle.
5. We remove the casserole from the heat and let the cream cool down by covering it with a transparent paper to prevent it from creating a scab on its surface.

Assembly, baking and final presentation of the coca de San Juan

1. Once we have the fermented coca and the cold cream, we put the pastry cream in a sleeve with a curly nozzle and decorate the coca with the classic cream lattice. We place the already hydrated pine nuts in the holes.
2. With the oven previously heated to 190ºC, bake the coca for 15/17 minutes, until it is golden brown. We remove the coca from the oven and let it cool on a rack before enjoying it.

A  delicious dessert recipe to accompany on a large tabletop, the colophon more larpeiro or sweet. It is perfect for a noite of San Xoan or Sant Joan or any self-respecting celebration.

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for sweet coca from San Juan .  Do not miss any detail to make it perfect for this magical night that is coming.