Boleima: a cake made with bread dough

It might sound strange to you, if I say that one of the ingredients of this wonderful cake is raw bread dough…

It doesn’t sound strange to me because I grew up eating this cake. Boleima it’s traditional from my grandparents’ little village, where people didn’t have much access to a lot of ingredients and had to rely mostly on their imagination to bake...

This is a dense cake, kind of chewy, with a tight crumb, very aromatic and with a slight tang (from the bread dough). I personally love it!

This recipe was given to me by my cousin that got it from her mother. My cousin always buys the bread dough to make it, but I make my one. This time I decided to experiment with the master recipe from the book Artisan Bread in five minutes a day and it worked beautifully!

BOLEIMA

• 250 gr (9oz) bread dough (raised)
• 250 gr (9oz) flour
• 250 gr (9oz) sugar
• 125 gr (4.5 oz) lard, softned (you can use butter)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 lemon (peel)
• Cinnamon sugar* (for sprinkling)
  

It’s so simple to make! You just mix all the ingredients and you’re done! I’ve used my hands, because I’m a hands-on kind of person, but a mixer or a spoon are fine too.

The batter is a bit odd for a cake, since it’s quite elastic. I’ve baked mine in a square 20cm (8inch) pan, buttered and floured. One important step is to heavily sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of the batter before baking. Gotta love a crunchy top!

For the Cinnamon sugar* I’ve used 4 tsp sugar and ½ tsp cinnamon. Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 20m or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean and the top is golden.

This is the plain version, but there’s also Boleima de Maçã (Apple Boleima) that is made by putting half the batter in the pan, covering it with a lot of sliced apples, walnuts and cinnamon sugar, and then top it with the rest of the batter. I think that version is even better, but since I was trying a new bread dough and wanted to keep it simple. Still it’s great!

Now all you need is a cup of tea! Have you ever tried a similar cake?