Vegan roscón de Reyes (Three Kings cake)

Name: Vegan roscón de Reyes (Three Kings cake)
Total time: 870 min
Yield: For 8 servings
Ingredients: 90 gr. strong bread flour; 2 gr. fresh yeast; 50 ml. soy milk; 120 ml. soy milk; 1/2 cinnamon stick; 1/2 orange skin; the skin of 1/2 lemon; 340 gr. strong bread flour; 80 gr. whole cane sugar; 2 tablespoons flax seeds; 6 tablespoons water; 2 tablespoons rum; 1 tablespoon orange blossom water; 15 gr. fresh yeast; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 60 gr. non-hydrogenated margarine; 200 gr. ground almonds; 150 gr. sugar glas; 40 ml. water; 2 tablespoons soy milk; 1 teaspoon agave syrup; candied fruit; pearly sugar

1 h 30 mTotal time

DifficultDifficulty

8Servings

* Plus 13 hours of resting time

The origin of the roscón de reyes (Three Kings Cake) dates back to the 2nd century BC, specifically to the Roman festival known as the 'Saturnalia', held from December 17 to 23 (when the work in the fields was over) in honor of the god Saturn, god of agriculture and harvests. These festivities celebrated the end of the dark period of the year and the beginning of the period of light, with ever longer days.

Besides exchanging gifts, a dessert that was especially popular during these festivities was made: a cake containing nuts, dates and figs, the true forerunner of the roscón de Reyes.

However, it was not until the 3rd century AD that a broad bean began to be added, which was considered a symbol of prosperity and fertility, so whoever found it was promised a whole year of prosperity.

With the imposition of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, very few pagan customs survived, but the cake with the bean endured, although it later took the ring shape we know today.

France is one of the places where the tradition of eating the roscón took hold most strongly, especially among royalty and the nobility. It is also where, in the 18th century, it became a tradition to include a gold coin, so that the goal of finding the bean was replaced by that of finding the coin.

In the 19th century this new French custom arrived in Spain, where the coin was replaced by a porcelain figurine, and it became tradition to eat the roscón on Three Kings' Day, to crown as 'king' whoever found the figurine, and to make whoever found the bean pay.

Today, the traditional sweet is presented in the shape of a ring and decorated with candied fruit, recreating a crown with gems and rubies. It may or may not be filled, the most popular fillings being marzipan, whipped cream, custard, chocolate truffle cream and chocolate.

This recipe is made with a delicious marzipan filling, but you can also fill the roscón, once baked, with the filling of your choice, or even leave it unfilled, since the sweet aroma of orange blossom water and the citrus notes of orange and lemon make it truly irresistible.

For the preferment

For the roscón dough

For the marzipan filling

For the decoration

Notes

Make sure that the rum you use has not used any product of animal origin for its elaboration, since during the clarification process elements such as animal albumin, milk proteins, gelatin or isinglass are usually used.

When selecting vegetable margarine, check that it does not contain palm oil either and that it is 100% vegetable (Eg: Flora brand olive margarine has gelatin among its ingredients).

If you don't have icing sugar on hand, you can make it using a mixture of 95% sugar - 5% corn starch, and grinding it in a coffee grinder. In this way you can make icing sugar using whole cane and panela sugar.

In the event that you prefer to make a roscón without filling or filling in half, in step 12, instead of stretching the dough into a rectangle, you should take the dough, knead it gently for 2 or 3 minutes and let it rest for 15 minutes covered with a clean cotton cloth. Then you make a hole in the center and stretch it from the inside out, opening it until the mass no longer yields. When the dough cannot be stretched any further, the process is the same, cover it with the rag and let it rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

If after the baking time, you see that the roscón is not yet well cooked, you can leave it a little longer, always watching that it does not burn. If you see that it browns a lot on top without being well cooked, you can cover it with parchment paper to prevent the fruit from burning.

Tap on the steps to mark them as done

Step 1
In a saucepan, we heat the soy milk for the dough together with the cinnamon and the orange and lemon skins. When it starts to boil, put the heat to a minimum and let it boil for 5 minutes.
Step 2
After this time, put out the fire and, when it is warm, cover it and cover it in the fridge for 8 hours.
Step 3
In a bowl, we put the pre-meal flour together with the yeast and soy milk for it, mix everything well with the hands to form a dough and, when everything is well mixed, we make a ball. We cover the bowl with the ball inside with a clean cotton cloth and we also put it in the refrigerator overnight for 8 hours.

Step 4
After this time, we prepared the marzipan. Put the ground almonds in a bowl, add the icing sugar and water, stir to mix all the ingredients well and keep well covered in the fridge.
Step 5
We grind the flaxseed and put it in a cup along with the 6 tablespoons water, stir and let it rest for 10 minutes, while we continue to prepare the dough.
Step 6
We take the preferment from the fridge, the milk with the cinnamon and the orange and lemon skins, and we also take out the margarine so that it is not so cold and compact.
Step 7
We combine the soy milk so that there are no remains of cinnamon or skins and we throw away the rum and orange blossom water. If by cooking, and after adding the orange blossom water and rum, the amount of liquid does not reach the same amount of soy milk that we left in the beginning, we added a little soy milk until we reached the optimum amount .
Step 8
In a large bowl, we remove the flour, the sugar, the pretzel and the crumbled yeast to make the dough. We add the mixture that we have prepared with soy milk and the mixture of flax and water, and we tie everything together with the salt, mixing everything well with the hands until obtaining a homogeneous mixture.
Step 9
On a flat surface a little floured, we put the dough and begin to work it, folding it on itself for 8 minutes. Although at the beginning it will stick in your hands, little by little it will stop being sticky and we will be able to work it better.
Step 10
Add the margarine (which should have a soft texture) and continue working the dough kneading another 8 minutes, until you check that the dough is smooth.
Step 11
Then we form a ball and pass it back to the bowl, covered with a clean cotton cloth, leaving it in a warm place for 2 hours to double its volume.
Step 12
After this time, flour a smooth surface again, place the dough on it and stretch it with a floured roller to avoid sticking. Stretch the dough as much as we can, giving it a rectangle shape. Although it seems that it is difficult to stretch it, we will see that little by little the dough is giving way and is smoothing. We will try to have about 2 millimeters thick.
Step 13
When we have the dough stretched, we form an elongated curl with the marzipan and place it on the left side of the dough. Roll the dough carefully over the marzipan and make a curl until you finish rolling the whole dough. When we have the curl we close it by joining both ends so that it is well sealed. We passed it to a baking tray on vegetable paper and let it light again for 1 hour and 30 minutes, covered with a clean cloth of algogón.
Step 14
Preheat the oven to 175º and, while, prepare the mixture of soy milk and agave syrup and varnish it with the roscón. We decorate it with the candied fruit and pearly sugar and bake it for 15 minutes, making sure it does not burn. After this time, we take it out of the oven, decorate it with a bit of crushed pearly sugar, let it cool by placing it on a rack and, when it has cooled down, serve it.

Notes

When selecting vegetable margarine, check that it does not contain palm oil either and that it is 100% vegetable (Eg: Flora brand olive margarine has gelatin among its ingredients).

Vegan roscón de Reyes (Three Kings cake)

Categories

For the preferment

For the roscón dough

For the marzipan filling

For the decoration

Notes

Notes