Sunday Baking: Ensaymada Bulakeña

Every so often, I pore over my recipe books and get inspired. Well, inspiration is mostly in the form of "readily available ingredients + simple steps + short prep and cooking time," and this ensaymada covers all inspiration points. So, why Ensaymada Bulakeña? See, there's this bakeshop---Eurobake--- in Guiginto, Bulacan, that serves incredibly good ensaymada; it has strips of ham, lots of butter and sugar, slices of salted egg, and grated cheese---good, old ensaymada, you know? None of those very airy, light, and "sissified" ensaymadas we see in malls. That, plus the fact that I'm a Bulakeña through and through. You know, there used to be a sign in NLEX, upon entering the province, that says "Bulacan: Lalawigan ng matatapang na bayani, magagandang dilag, at maunlad na kooperatiba." Sexist, hello! Okay, enough of the tangent thoughts. Let's get on with the baking. This recipe is modified The Maya Kitchen Mix and Match Meals 1 recipe.

1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 c lukewarm water
4 eggyolks
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c melted butter
3-4 c sifted flour
strips of ham
grated cheese

1. Grease the baking pan and set aside. (See my pink
heart-shaped ceramic baking pan? Cuteness galore, right?)
2. Dissolve yeast and the 1-tbsp sugar in a few milliliters of
water. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine the eggyolks, sugar, milt, salt, half of
melted butter, remaining water, flour, and yeast mixture.
4. Knead the dough until smooth. Let it rise for an hour or
so.
5. Divide the dough into pieces, form a ball, and roll out
into strips.
6. Add strips of ham and grated cheese over dough strips, then
stick the strips together with a bit of milk.
7. Smear sugar and butter over
the strips, then roll.
8. Place in the prepared pan then let rise for another
hour.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden
brown. Well, mine didn't get golden brown, so I just cheated my way to "golden
brown"-ess. I brushed a mixture of milk and beaten eggwhites and placed it back
to the over.

Just before serving, I placed a dab of butter and drizzled some sugar and grated cheese. By the way, that beeswax candle? I handrolled that myself, thank you very much! It's not really difficult---I just bought a candle-rolling kit from Ilog Maria (lovely organic products, if I may add), and it took me less than 5 minutes to finish. Oh, I almost forgot, the ensaymadas, yummy! But if you're craving for a sugar rush, this isn't it. I'm not very keen on very sweet breads, see.