Torrijas —and Spain’s love affair with bread

April 23, 2026

Natacha Sanz Caballero

Breads, Desserts and Sweets
Cuaresma y Pascua, Holy Week and Easter, pan, Spanish delicacies, Spanish traditions, candy bread

It’s the Easter season, and my favourite deal with is torrijas! They are often loved at any time of 12 months, however In Spain they’re historically eaten throughout Holy Week and Easter.

However what are torrijas, you ask? They’re a scrumptious candy bread deal with, and although I hate to make the next comparability, that is how I clarify what they’re right here in America when requested: torrijas are the Spanish model of the French toast. Yeah, I do know, who is aware of what got here first, the torrijas or the French toast, proper? However French toast is widespread in America, so that’s my greatest strategy to clarify torrijas.

Cristo de la Palma through the Holy Week Processions (Onteniente, Spain)

Holy Thursday Procession, Maritime Holy Week in Valencia (Spain)

Variations between torrijas and French toast

There are some variations between the 2. One in all them has to do with the bread. Once I was youthful, for torrijas you’d use two-day previous baguette bread. These days, bakers make particular bread for torrijas, extra brioche-like. At residence, my mother made torrijas each time she had a day-old loaf of bread —as a result of, as you in all probability know, in Spain, we solely eat contemporary bread, day-old bread has different makes use of, however it’s not eaten as accompaniment for saucy dishes or within the very typical Spanish bocadillos (sandwiches made with crusty baguette bread, just like the brascada).

La Soledad, Holy Week processions, Onteniente, Spain

One other distinction between torrijas and French toast is within the milk used to absorb the bread: for torrijas, the milk is flavored with orange and cinnamon, which provides them a really specific and scrumptious style.

One other foremost distinction is that the bread, as soon as soaked up within the flavored milk and drenched in egg, might be fried in olive oil as an alternative of butter, which is what you’d  use for French toast.

And eventually, the final distinction is on what you pour on the completed product: for French toast, you’ll use maple syrup or another syrup. Torrijas will be completed in numerous methods relying totally on the area of Spain. In some components, they’re drenched in honey. However my favourite approach, and the best way my mother all the time made them, is totally lined in a combination of cinnamon and granulated sugar. So good!

Procesiones de Semana Santa. Sevilla. Miécoles Santo. Salida de la Hermandad del Baratillo

Ecce Homo, Holy Week Procession (Onteniente, Spain)

La Dolorosa, Holy Week in Onteniente, Spain

Torrijas for Holy Week and Easter

As I’ve talked about earlier, we are able to take pleasure in torrijas at any time of 12 months, however they’re a staple throughout Holy Week and Easter. And identical to Christmas doesn’t finish on Christmas Day, however begins on Christmas Day, Easter doesn’t finish on Easter Sunday, however it begins on Easter Sunday and lasts till Pentecost. So it is a excellent recipe to be sharing now!

Holy Week is especially particular in Spain, the place folks have fun on the streets by accompanying the floats with pictures depicting scenes of Jesus’ Ardour in avenue processions. I’ve talked about it on this weblog —you may test it out right here, right here or right here—, however if in case you have the prospect, I encourage you to go to Spain throughout that point of 12 months.

Bread in Spain

There are numerous recipes within the Spanish delicacies that use bread. The factor is, bread has been for hundreds of years, and nonetheless is as we speak, an important fundamental foodstuff for Spaniards. Till not so way back, the truth is, each Spaniard ate a mean of two kilos of bread per day. It’s virtually inconceivable to consider sitting across the desk collectively and not using a loaf of bread to share.

Individuals in Spain accompany many dishes with contemporary bread, bought on the bakery that exact same morning. I’ve very vivid recollections of my childhood when, after my mother ready breakfast and we had been sitting across the desk having fun with it earlier than heading for college, she would stroll to the bakery and are available again with a number of loaves of bread. Whereas we completed breakfast and brushed our tooth, she would put together easy bocadillos with the crunchy, nonetheless heat bread, drenched in olive oil and sprinkled with some salt, that we’d take to high school, wrapped in aluminum paper, to be loved through the midmorning break.

Sorts of bread in La Tahona del Abuelo, Valencia (Spain)

Bread with alioli and with tomate and olive oil, favorites for Spaniards

Easter breads

Monas de Pascua, Easter breads

Valencia Easter breads

Surprises within the monas de Pascua

Pan de pasas y nueces, widespread in Valencia

Bread is so necessary within the Spanish weight-reduction plan that after the Spanish Civil Battle, when starvation was prevalent, bread grew to become the bottom —and generally the one factor— of the Spaniards’ weight-reduction plan. My grandma, who had horrid recollections of the struggle, all the time saved a chunk of bread after a meal, “simply in case”.

Good white bread continues to be the norm in Spain, although in more moderen years, many types of bread have popped up out there, the  so-called wholesome breads —darker breads with entire grains or utilizing different styles of flour apart from the standard wheat flour.

Similar to every area of Spain has their very own delicacies, in addition they have their very own approach of baking bread, with some sorts of bread attribute of that exact area. All of them have one factor in widespread, although: bread in Spain is crusty.

Among the many completely different styles of bread are the pan blanco or pan candeal, typical from Castilla; the pa assaonat in Valencia, the pa de pagès, in Cataluña and the Balearic Islands; the pan de cristal  additionally in Cataluña; piquitos in Andalucía or borona in Asturias (made with corn), and the sopako, a really darkish bread, in San Sebastián. Virtually each village is pleased with its personal specialty, and as we are saying in Spain, generally bread is “comido con los ojos”, eaten along with your eyes, as a result of it not solely tastes, however it seems to be so good.

For the torrijas on this publish I used brioche buns they usually turned out rather well. As you may see, my torrijas are spherical in form, not the standard form of a thick slice of bread that you’d discover in Spain, however they’re simply as scrumptious. One piece of recommendation: torrijas are higher when simply made, so make them and revel in them!

I want you a contented Easter season!

Associated