Although fruitcake, panettone, and julekake are adored, for many Salvadorans, Sweet Christmas Bread reigns supreme.
A Delicious Date
It is always a pleasure to eat good food, and Christmas is a perfect time to share good food with family and loved ones. Christmas food often invites us to travel to the places of origin of different dishes found on our tables.
It is the truth of a place: you do not really know the soul of Rome until you take a bite of squid ink pasta, or the soul of San Francisco without the perfect sourdough, a soft hopper in Sri Lanka, a perfect potsticker in Beijing, or, in this case, a beautiful soft bread filled with pineapple compote in El Salvador. You return with stories to tell.
However we tell it, what we eat wherever we are is an anchor: a universal and common human thread.
The Sweet Bread
This sweet bread is popular throughout Central America. However, this version of the sweet and buttery bread filled with jam is found in El Salvador. Sweet bread\/Sweet Semitas is a popular dish that can be found in bakeries throughout Central America. When walking through the small (but fast-growing) El Salvador, you can see street vendors with their version.
Sweet bread is a yeast bread with the texture of a dense cake, traditionally filled with grated or crushed panela. The sticky panela\/sweet semitas caramelize and are delicious. Some popular variations are pineapple jam or strawberry jam fillings. Perhaps one of the most popular, and which may have a lot to do with this sweet bread, is stollen.
Christmas stollen, known in Germany as Christollen, is a rich, dense and sweet bread filled with dried fruit, candied citrus peel, marzipan or almond paste, and nuts. It originates from the city of Dresden, Germany, where it was first produced in the late 1500s.
Sweet bread is enjoyed all year round, but during the holidays it is loaded with more fruits and nuts, items that historically were only available through importation from El Salvador and therefore very expensive.
The Tradition
Although the tradition is very deep-rooted, there are many variations, and the ingredients can be substituted to suit your taste. Our recipe offers a simplified version that mimics the shape of a classic Christmas stollen, without the anxiety of a 600-year-old tradition.
Sweet bread is not difficult to make, but it is not a quick recipe for the holidays either; much of the experience is in the time it takes to create it.
Like any bread, there is a lot of waiting time, but none more challenging than the aging process. Once the sweet bread is baked (and after it has filled your house with the smell of Christmas), it must be allowed to cool, then wrapped well and rested for three weeks.
Before mixing the dough, we soak the nuts in rum or other liquors. Later, as the bread ages, that tasty liquid seeps into the bread, bringing its characteristic richness and depth of flavor. If you don't have time to age the bread, don't despair, it will still be delicious. Next year, you can add it to your post-Christmas Eve dinner tradition, and your sweet bread will be ready just in time to unwrap.
