This eggy bread is another Spanish recipe which makes great use of leftovers. Although it is traditionally eaten at Easter, we eat it often for lunch or brunch. Serves 6
2 litres milk
300g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 load of day-old white bread
Vegetable oil for frying [something flavourless like sunflower oil or peanut oil]
2 eggs, beaten
For the cinnamon coating:- 100g sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon Place the milk, sugar and cinnamon stick in a pan [above] and bring almost to boiling point, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and leave for about 15 minutes [below] so the milk is infused with the cinnamon aroma. Cut the bread into slices about 2-3cm thick. Place the bread slices in a large shallow dish and pour the milk over. Chill for at least 2 hours [below], turning the slices over halfway through. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, you need to be able to fry at least two slices of bread at a time. You could use butter instead of vegetable oil but beware, it burns more quickly.
When the oil is hot, quickly dip each slice of bread in the beaten egg so that it is fully-coated [below]. Then place in the hot oil. Be careful not to burn your fingers! After a couple of minutes, flip them over and fry for another minute or two until golden. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
Mix together the sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle on both sides of the torrijas. Do this while they are still hot, as the sugary coating will stick more easily.

5 to remember
la Pascua – Easter
las sobras – the leftovers
a menudo – more often
desabrido/a – flavourless
el cacahuete – peanut

Recipe from ‘Tapas Revolution’ by Omar Allibhoy