El Dia De Reyes Blog Hop

Hello  and welcome to El Día De Los Reyes Magos Blog Hop! If you are coming here from sweetsassy diva's blog then you are in the right place! If not you can start at the beginning from Gaby creates you don’t want to miss one stop. She is giving away 6 grand prizes but in order to win one you must:

1-Visit and leave a comment on every blog
2-and collect a letter or word from the blogs ( I DON’T HAVE A WORD)
3-email the phrase to scrapabookaholic at hotmail dot com
4-(DO NOT enter the phrase on the comment- email it to scrapabookaholic@hotmail.com)

When Gaby asked me to be a part of this hop I was excited and a little nervous because this day means a great deal to her and I did not want to dissapoint her. I really do not know much about this holiday , my family doesn’t celebrate it, so I did some research and I am so glad I did! Here is a little bit of what I found..

On January 6,  celebrates El Dia De Reyes, the Epiphany, remembering the day when the Three Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem, arrived bearing their treasured gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the Baby Jesus.

On the night, of January 5, the figurines of the Three Wise Men are added to the nativity scene. Before going to bed the children place their old shoes under their bed or in the living room, where the Wise Men will leave them their presents.  Some also place outside the house, some hay and a bucket with water for the animals, and even some cookies and milk for Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. The next morning the children awaken  and find the gifts that the  Three Magi left for them.  They have a feast with family and friends, one of the foods served during this feast is  Rosca de Reyes which is  an oval sweetbread, decorated with candied fruit.  There are Roscas of all sizes, very small ones for two or three people and up to the ones that will delight more that twenty people.

I became so excited about this wonderful tradition I decided to make Rosca de Reyes! Oh and it really was a challenge lol! Lets just say the smell of burning bread isn’t the easiest smell to get out of the house, not even febreeze helps haha! I tried a few times and finally was able to get it!! I got to take this quick picture before hubby ate it! (Please don’t laugh it is kinda crooked)

Here is the Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup warm water
• 1 packet of yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon anise seed
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• A small figurine or toy
• Candied Fruit (about 2 cups of assorted fruit such as figs, orange, lemon, mango or cherries)
• 1 egg beaten (egg wash)
• 1/3 cup sugar (topping)

Prep:

Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast water, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, cinnamon, anise seed and vanilla extract. Mix until a dough forms. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then cover and let rise in a warm area until dough is doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Punch dough down and shape into a wreath ( try not to make it crooked like mine lol), by rolling it into a log shape then bending the ends around to form a circle, or you can make two thinner strips and braid them, then put the ends together.  Smooth out any lumps or tears.

Add the dried fruit by laying it across the top and pressing it in slightly. Let it rise until doubled. Brush top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and bake for approximatley 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I left it for 45 minutes the first time and burned it haha so just watch it once it hits around 30 minutes.

Ok now on to my craft project..

I had to make this one really fast cause just as I was finishing my card I decided to clean the table so I can take pictures and I dropped my Big Red all over the table! I ruined some paper and one of my cartridge booklets and worst of all my card!

I hope you are enjoying yourself now time to hop over to the next blog which is Melin over at cooking with cricut you know she has something amazing!