I lived in Spain for 15+ years and "Monas de Pascua" are a traditional Easter treat that kids and adults enjoy every year. So, this year as I'm back in the UK I thought I'd try making my own.
"Initially, the mona was a cake made with sugar or other sweeteners, and contained hard boiled eggs. However, in most parts of Catalonia over time the eggs were replaced by chocolate, and it eventually became the focus of the mona. In Valencia and Murcia, on the other hand, the recipe has not changed and still has the original form of a pastry with the hard-boiled egg. [...] In almost all Catalonia and Valencia, it is customary for godparents to give the mona to their godchild on Easter Sunday." It is also tradition to crack the hard boiled egg on someone else's forehead before you can eat the mona.
These are easy enough to make but require some patience, I recommend giving them ago for an Easter treat that's a bit different. I'd say it's like a sweet bread, covered in sugar and sprinkles. I decided to just make ours as a ring and added chocolate Kinder eggs in the centre instead of hard boiled eggs.
So, the first recipe I tried didn't go according to plan (they were too dense!) but these were perfect! The recipe I used was this one, but if you want it in English keep scrolling, I've translated it!
"Monas de Pascua"
Yield: 4 - 5 monas, depending on size
Cooking time: 1 hour approximately
Preparation time: 30 - 40 minutes
Total time: 1h 30 minutes approximately
Ingredients
500g of flour (I used a mix of strong bread flour and self-raising flour, about 75% strong bread flour and 15% self-raising)
12g of dry yeast (alternatively you can use 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda and the juice on half a lemon)
1/4 litre of milk (at room temperature or slightly warm)
100g of melted butter
80g of sugar
1 egg
A pinch of salt
To paint the dough
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp of milk
To decorate
Sprinkles, 100s and 1000s, chocolate chips, raisins, almond shavings or any decoration you fancy (we used sprinkles and 100s and 1000s)
Hard boiled eggs (you can paint these!) or chocolate eggs
How to make them
Add the flour to a medium/large bowl. Then add the dry yeast and mix it well with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients: butter (melted), milk, the egg and a pinch of salt. Mix well (I used the fork at first and then my hands)
If you're not using dry yeast: mix the flour, butter, sugar, milk, egg and a pinch of salt. Once you have mixed it very well and all of the ingredients have been incorporated add the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and mix well again until it's fully incorporated.
Knead the mixture well, it should become less wet and sticky {I covered my hands in flour and a work surface and kneaded it until it looked quite dry and with a dusting of flour on the dough}. Form a ball with the dough.
Put the dough ball into the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel or cloth and put in the oven at a max of 50C for 20-30 minutes, leaving the oven door slightly open, until you see that the dough has doubled in size. Alternatively, you could cover the bowl with a damp tea towel/cloth and put it in the microwave at 80-90 watts for 8 minutes. {I'm guessing you could also leave it in a warm room if it's warm enough although you may have to wait longer}
Cover a baking tray with baking paper, once the dough has doubled in size divide the dough into 4 or 5 pieces {the quantity depends on how big you make each one, I made 5 rings and they were quite big, just bare in mind you need to fit the hard boiled egg or chocolate egg somewhere on it. You could make mini rings and use smaller eggs}. Here you can let your imagination run wild, the original recipe I used made different shapes (they did a rabbit, a turtle, a twisted ring and a nest) but I just did rings, so it's completely up to you what shape you try and make.
Put them back in the oven at 50C for 10 minutes, so the dough grows.
Take your dough shapes out of the oven, and turn the oven to 200C to pre-heat. Then whisk an egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk and brush the mixture onto the dough shapes, so that they go golden in the oven. Add any decoration you want {here I added sprinkle strands and 100s and 1000s plus a bit of sugar} around the top.
Put them in the oven at 200C for 25-30 minutes, until they start to golden. {I think I could have taken mine out before 25 minutes as they started to go a bit browner on the sides, so just keep an eye out and it depends on your oven}
8. Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely, enjoy! What do you think?
Here are mine:
If you made these comment down below or tag me in photos on Instagram [@wanderlusthobbies (My blog page) or @dlouisebakes (My baking account!)]
[This is not my recipe, I have just made these and translated the recipe to English, original recipe is linked. Photos are mine, and my own tips and opinions are in purple.]