Coca de Sant Joan / Saint Jonh's cake

 Coca de Sant Joan / Saint John's cake

Coca de Sant Joan is a traditional cake with a soft texture which is made for la 'Revetlla de Sant Joan' the night 🌙 before Saint John's day, when people gather to celebrate the summer solstice in Catalonia and in some parts of the Eastern coast of Spain.

Family and friends, together with this traditional cake and a good bottle of Cava, Catalan sparkling wine, meet up for a late dinner around a table and when the night falls, the fireworks start on the streets. At the beach, you can see the bonfires and hear the loud noise and the smell of the firecrackers. 

Just talking about it makes beautiful memories come to mind.

The coca or cake consists in making a dough that is similar to a brioche texture and the tradition is to decorate it with candied fruit, pine nuts, or blanched almonds and custard cream.

Here is the step-by-step recipe for 8-10 people.

What you will need:

1 oven tray + baking paper

1 saucepan

1 Stand mixer or mixer with the dough hook

2 medium mixing bowls

1 rolling pin

1 pastry brush

1 pipping bag and 1 round piping nuzzle

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

500g strong flour or bread flour

100g caster sugar

10g dried yeast

Orange and lemon zest

A pinch of salt

1 egg

240ml whole milk

3g orange blossom

60g butter at room temperature

1 beaten egg + a pinch of salt to brush the dough

For the custard:

100ml milk

120g caster sugar

2 eggs

20g cornflour

Decoration:

50g pine nuts

50g cocktail cherries

Method:

Making the dough: 

Set your mixer with the dough hook and add the strong flour, the yeast, a pinch of salt, the orange and lemon zest, and the egg into the mixing bowl until well combined. Turn on at medium speed and slowly add the milk into the bowl with the orange blossom. Let it work for about 10 minutes so you can see an elastic dough.

Add the butter at room temperature into the bowl and start the mixer again to medium speed and let the dough work for 5 more minutes.

Prepare another bowl with a bit of oil and add the dough, cover with a cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Once it has risen, put it onto the baking paper and with the help of the rolling pin form an oval dough the approximate size of the oven tray. Now let it rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes. 

Making the custard: 

While the dough is rising you can prepare the custard and let it cool once it's done.

Mix 25ml of milk with the cornflour and 2 beaten eggs in another bowl until well combined.

Add the rest of the milk with the sugar into a saucepan and heat it until starts to boil. Remove from the heat and add it very slowly into the egg mixture stirring continuously. 

Heat it again at low temperature until you will see that it thickens, which means it is done.

Pour the custard into a medium bowl to let it cool.

Assembling the coca before baking:

Set your oven at 180 ºC and brush the risen dough with the mixture of the beaten egg with a pinch of salt.

Cut the cherries in half. 

Add all the custard, that should have been cooled by this time, into the piping bag with the round nozzle and squeeze onto the dough in straight lines from the top to the bottom in a diagonal. Continue to do these lines all over the dough. 

Now on each intersection add half of the cherry to make it look pretty.

If you like to add more texture we can sprinkle some caster sugar all over too, giving a nice crunchy and caramelized finish to the coca.

Sprinkle some pine nuts on top and now will be ready to bake for about 20 minutes.

Let it cool on a rack if you can resist it, get your chilled cava, and enjoy the verbena de Sant Joan!

This recipe is in memory of my beloved father who was always around to make me feel calm💕