Crystallized cake :: Coca de vidrio

Today I’m bringing you another typical Catalan recipe. It is named “coca de vidre” (crystallized cake) because when you take out the cake from the oven and pour the sweet anis on it, the sugar crystallizes right away.

Back to my childhood, I used to go with my parents to the cinema and eat coca de vidre after the movie. I remember we used to buy it in a very tiny, cozy cute shop where you could see all the shinnies cakes laying in the till. The smell of the anis opened your stomach and you just wanted to buy tones of that delicious sweet cake!

Ingredients (4 units)

• 350 gr of flour 
  
• 8 gr of sugar
• 8 gr of salt
• 15 gr of yeast
• 25 gr of butter
• 180 ml of water
• Olive oil
• Sugar
• 50 gr of Pinions 
• 20 cl Sweet anis

Elaboration 
Choose a deep bowl and add the flour and the salt and mix it all together. 

Create a volcano and put the butter, the sugar, the yeast and the water in the middle of it. 

I didn’t have yeast so I used the plain baking powder and it perfectly worked!

Now it’s time to knead the dough for 10 minutes. As it is not a very hard large amount of dough, I personally used to do it with my hands instead of using any other helpful tool. After the first 5 minutes you will feel the work is almost done but keep doing the same for 5 minutes more because the smoother the best!

Make a ball with your hands and cover the dough with a cloth. (TIP: wet your hands with a little bit of olive oil so the dough won’t stick in them!).  Let is stand for 10 minutes.
 
Pre heat the oven 190º

After that time, split the ball in four parts ( = 4 cakes!). 

Stretch the dough with the roller. The secret is ending up with very; very thin dough so when you bite it easily breaks in your mouth.

Paint the surface of the dough with olive oil. Spread sugar on it and add the pinions. Add as much sugar as you like but you will have enough with 50-100 gr each cake.

Because the 4 cakes didn’t fit in my baking tray, I firstly baked 2 and then 2 more. Bake them for 10-15 minutes. Before taking them out from the oven, pour the anis all over the cake (5 cl) and bake it again for 5 minutes more or until it is toasted.

You will see that the anise gives the cake the shiny kind of slippery look and the aroma just want to eat all at once! 

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