It is World Bread Day again and this time I brought you some sweet pastry from Argentina, facturas argentinas! Facturas argentinas can be described as the typical sweet pastry you may have for breakfast or as a snack. All bakeries offer an abudance of different options, they are typically either filled with quince paste (dulce de membrillo), the caramel dulce de leche, or a custard cream. They come in different shapes and sizes, but what they all have in common is the same dough, rough puff pastry. Actually, it seems to be impossible to find the proper English translation. In German we say “Plunderteig”, which means it is a yeast dough, which usually has butter layers in between. The rough part in this version, however, comes from the fact that the butter is not worked into the dough as a single layer, but instead mixed into the yeast dough directly and later layered. It probably is described best as rough plunder.
Unfortunately, I missed out on World Bread Day last year, but if you would like to see my previous breads from previous world bread days, you will find
Italian bread with semolina and olive oil
Mixed bread with different flours and sourdough
You might wonder why this year I didn’t do a traditional bread and why it is suddenly filled and sweet. Well, the reason is very simple. This time I didn’t ask my husband to make his magic work, but instead tried myself. We have a clear divison in this family. I am the one who will make the sweet stuff and he is our baker. His grandfather actually was the baker of the entire village, so it is probably in his genes. He is really good at making bread. But this time I thought I have to present something myself for World Bread Day. So I asked the organizer Zorra from the blog Kochtopf. She has been organizing this event for 17 (!) years already. Her reply was simple, as long as it contains yeast or sourdough, it can also be more of a pastry, so I was all in!
For me facturas argentinas are a wonderful way of showing your love. Yes, you have to make the dough and then do all the turning and folding, but you will be rewarded with a super delicious pastry and butter, filled to your liking and even shaped differently. I tried the Colombian style, which looks like fried pork belly. You can have some much fun with this dough! You may even make croissants or medialunas, this is how they are called in Argentina. Yum, I am all in for that, I hope you are, too!
Facturas Argentinas or Argentinian sweet pastries are made with rough puff pastry and can be filled to your liking. Weigh the flour into a large bowl and place the butter in chunks on top. Quickly work into crumbs the size of peas either with your hands, a pastry cutter or a food processor. Add all other remaining ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, only mix until a crumbly ball can be formed. Spread on a surface and loosly work into a rectangle. You want to keep chunks of butter for it to be flakey later on, so don't worry if it is all rough and crumbly. Cover and chill for three to four hours or overnight. Then take out of the fridge and roll ino a rectangle on a floured surface with a rolling pin the size of 60x40cm. Fold into a business letter (thirds). For a visual see the video. Turn 90 degrees, roll again into a 60x40cm rectangle, repeat the folding process and do it another time. In the end you should have rolled out into a rectangle and folded into a business letter three times. Each time it should be easier to roll out the dough and the butter should be better incorporated. In case you are working in a hot enivornment, chill in between turns. Cover and chill after the third turn. You can chill overnight or freeze at this point. Once ready, cut dough in half and place one half back into the fridge. I usually freeze one half for later as it is only the two of us. Roll out thinnly like puff pastry on a floured surface. Cut into desired shapes (about 8-9 per half) and fill wither either quince paste (dulce de membrillo), the caramel dulce de leche or pastry cream. You may even shape into croissants or medialunas how they are called in Argentina. For a visual, check this post. On the photos you will see them filled with homemade dulce de membrillo. Colombians like to make the shape of fried pork belly (chicarrónes de dulce). You see some of them pictured. Check the video how to make them. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush all of your pastries with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for about 17-20min, depending on size, they should be of a golden color. Dust with icing sugar before serving.Facturas Argentinas or Argentinian Sweet Pastries
Ingredients
Instructions
Check out all the breads from all around the world here.
4 Comments
zorra vom kochtopf
Tuesday October 18th, 2022 at 09:24 AMOh Jenny, die Dinger sind ja wie gemacht für mich! Die werden sehr, sehr bald nachgebacken. Danke fürs Mitmachen am WBD und liebe Grüsse an den Mann, der sicher froh war, dass er mal nicht backen “musste”. 😉
Lina
Thursday October 20th, 2022 at 01:22 PMWirklich eine sehr gute Inspiration;)
Liebe Grüße
Lina
Petra aka Cascabel
Monday October 31st, 2022 at 08:49 PMWow, die sind genau mein Beuteschema! Das Rezept nehme ich mit, da ich mich sowieso mehr mit Plunderteig beschäftigen möchte 🙂 Und Quitten für Quittenpaste sind auch im Haus, wenn das kein Wink des Schicksals ist 😉
Jenny
Monday October 31st, 2022 at 08:51 PMBerichte auf jeden Fall!