Tostadas with Mollete de Antequera are crunchy and tender at the same time
A soft bread roll it is now made exactly the same as when it was invented, in 1539 . That's the Antequera muffin , a typically Malagan food that has finally received the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) by the European Union. "Things in the palace go slowly. It has been a continuous process, costly economically and in the time spent," explains Guillermo Ramos, from Mollete San Roque, to Traveler.es. This workshop is one of the two that has continued to fight for recognition during the 15 years that the process has lasted, a period in which the rest of the promoters have been disregarding the project.
"At the head of Mollete San Roque is Juan Paradas Palacios, who he learned from his grandfather the best way to make muffins and was working with him when he was very young. His desire to take the muffin further and further prompted him to improve the production techniques and the way of packaging them, being a pioneer in use packaging in a protective atmosphere to preserve the muffin for 30 days ", continues Ramos. Thanks to this, the muffin, sold online, is already eaten in countries like Saudi Arabia and the United States.
On the characteristics and origins of this very special bread, reserved for the more affluent classes for much of its history, writes bread scholar Eulalia W. Petit, from the website Un Pedazo de Pan, in El Comidista. "It's a refined white bread, that being small has more manpower Y hardly any bark . The latter is in the European tradition of the wealthy classes, who even had a servant dedicated to scraping the crust of the bread in order to eat a soft bread. We must also remember that dentures were unfortunate after a certain age of life, so a peeled bread, tender and juicy It was a delight."
Now, the true molletes from Antequera, with a "tender, soft and smooth" texture and "intense" aromas that give it a "high sensory quality", according to the EU, have a quality seal with which it is guaranteed that its form of elaboration and production are the traditional ones. They thus enter the list of 1,500 products that, throughout Europe, have the PGI label.
MORE THAN A BREAKFAST
The muffin with oil is part of the traditional Malaga breakfast, but, for a few years, it has also entered the kitchen of great chefs such as Albert Adrià or Ever Cubilla . "The Antequera mollete is a soft crumb bread that starts from a very hydrated dough, with numerous alveoli. The secret to enjoying it in the tastiest way is to open it in half, put the halves back together and toast it . In this way, the crust is slightly crispy and the interior is very juicy," Ramos details.
In the Mollete San Roque channel, various ways of tasting it are taught. Among them, this one in which it is served as a toast with garlic prawns.
It can also be served as if it were a panini , for instance.
And, of course, in the traditional way: with tomato and Andalusian ham . Bon Appetite!