As you have asked us to publish a traditional recipe of Menorca cuisine, instead of looking in a typical book that you can buy in any bookshop or check out on Google, we thought we’d come up with this recipe so that the coca, the flat bread, is sweet and spongy, and which our collaborator Herminia Fortuny uses. We are going to try her Apricot Coca.
INGREDIENTS:
500 g of baker’s flour.
2 large eggs.
25 g of baker’s yeast.
125 g of pork lard at room temperature.
Grated lemon rind, half lemon.
150 g of potato (peeled weight).
200 g of sugar.
1 tin of apricots (or fresh apricots but making sure they are a little more acid).
STEPS TO FOLLOW
First of all, boil the potato. When it’s done, it should be mashed with a blender and the sugar. Put to one side so that it cools a little. Meanwhile, in a large bowl for kneading, beat the two eggs.
Add the yeast and crumble it with the fingers, mixing it well with the eggs. Add the pork lard, crumbling it with the hands and mixing it well with the egg and yeast. Add the rind of the half lemon, mixing it in very well. Add the flour and mixture of potato and sugar that was put aside.
Now comes the time to knead it well so that it is a uniform dough free of lumps. Cover with a cloth and place in a spot with no draught so the dough rises naturally. In summer it needs between two and three hours, and in winter between 3 and 4.
When it has risen, knead it again and place in a baking mould, previously greased with butter. Let it rise again, covered with a cloth and without draught, for approximately one hour.
The next step is to heat the oven at 175º C. When it has risen again, place the apricot halves slightly pushed into the dough. Cover all the dough and the apricots with sugar (to the chef’s taste). Finally, place the mould in the centre of the oven and bake at 175º top and bottom, for 40 minutes.
