The simple homemade recipe to make a coca de San Juan

In many municipalities of Spain the day of San Juan is a holiday. The night of June 23 to 24 there are numerous rituals and traditions throughout the Spanish geography. In addition to rituals, in many places there are typical recipes of this time, such as the coca de San Juan. The cocas de San Juan or coques de Sant Joan are typical of Catalonia and Levante and are consumed to celebrate the night of San Juan.

The sweet coca dough is similar to that of a light brioche, a bread enriched with eggs, sugar and butter. If this year you want to enjoy your own homemade coca de San Juan instead of buying it prepared, you can do so. To prepare the coca de San Juan you just have to follow a few simple steps from the recipe by the Barcelona baker Xavier Barriga that the María Lunarillos recipe blog collects:

Ingredients to make a coca de San Juan

For the pastry cream:

– Egg.

– 250 ml of whole milk.

– 80 g of sugar.

– 20 g of corn starch.

– ½ tsp. of vanilla extract.

For the San Juan coca dough:

– 500 g of strong flour.

– 120 ml of milk.

– 10 g of freeze-dried baker’s yeast (30 g of fresh yeast).

– 10 g of salt.

– 80 g of sugar.

– Three eggs.

– 85 g of softened butter.

The recipe step by step

To make the pastry cream you must mix all the ingredients in a bowl until there are no lumps. Then add the mixture to a saucepan and heat over low heat. Stir without stopping so that the cream does not stick and, when it starts to boil, leave it for a few seconds and remove it from the heat. Let it cool down and transfer it to a new bowl. Next, cover it with plastic wrap so that it directly touches the cream and store it in the refrigerator.

For the coca dough you must put the ingredients in a bowl except the butter. Knead the mixture by hand or with a robot for a couple of minutes and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Then, you must add the butter in a couple of batches, kneading until it is absorbed. Keep kneading until you get a fine and elastic dough. Make a ball with it, put it in a greased container, cover it and let it double in volume.

Soak some pine nuts in cold water. You will keep them as long as it takes to work with the dough so that they hydrate. When the dough has fermented, transfer it to the counter and flatten with your hands. Let it rest for about 10 minutes to be able to stretch it well. You can stretch it by hand or with a roller, in a rectangular or oval shape, as you like. Roll out until the dough is about 1 centimeter thick. Place baking paper on the tray and put the dough.

Next, pour the pastry cream with a piping bag with a curly tip. Make some cuts on the surface of the dough with a knife, in the form of a lattice. On the cuts you must apply the pastry cream. Drain the pine nuts well and place them on the surface. Cover and let it double in volume. When it is fermented, put the tray in the oven heated to 190ºC (without air) and let the coca bake for about 30-35 minutes until it is well browned. Finally, take it out to cool down.