The history of Sant Jordi bread and the step-by-step recipe (with video)

BarcelonaThe flag tastes like sobrasada, cheese, and nuts, and we eat it in the form of bread for Sant Jordi while we give (or are given) books and roses. From Bakers to Eduard Crespo and Almela for the creation of Sant Jordi bread, on the one hand, and, on the other, for a girl-gentleman riding a scooter.

Once you descend the three steps that extend past the bakery's sidewalk, the first thing you see in the display case where the pastries are displayed are the Sant Jordi breads. They're wrapped, have a ribbon in the colors of the flag, and a black bakery sticker. Since Monday, Georgina Crespo has been making them, just as her father, Eduard Crespo Almela, taught her to do. He, in turn, invented them after a commission he received from the Barcelona Bakers' Guild in 1988. "My father gave all the bakers a gift, because the Sant Jordi bread was a gift he gave me, because my name is Georgina," says the baker, adding that more and more people congratulate her on April 23rd, her saint's day, "but years ago it wasn't like that because the name, in the feminine form, wasn't associated with the date."

As she tells it, she has the three laminated doughs in the bakery. They are the cheese one (grated Emmental), the sobrasada one, and the walnut one. She made them with flour, water, salt, yeast, and plenty of sourdough starter, and on top are the layers that give them the color that distinguishes them. "The walnut one also has two other ingredients: butter and sugar," the baker explains.

Once the doughs are laminated, the next step is to layer them on top of each other. The first is the cheese dough, then the rest, and last, the cheese dough again. They look like a tower, layered on top of each other, and this colorful construction must be placed in the middle of a walnut dough, and the outer effect is like a blanket, it's so well flattened. "Then comes one of the last steps, which is to surround the tower with the walnut dough, on the right and left," says Georgina. The result will be an elongated tube, which she will cut to approximately 300 grams and which must ferment for 24 hours. After this time, she will put it in the oven for twenty minutes at 220 degrees, and it will be ready to be sold in the display case, at €5.90 per item. The fact that Sant Jordi falls on a Wednesday, a weekday, helps. "Sant Jordi should always be a weekday that we turn into a holiday, because it's when we go out, when we come from work, when we go out."

A bread that calls for salty

Finally, Georgina points out that Sant Jordi bread goes well with savory foods, such as anchovies. "But I eat it alone, without any other ingredients," she says. It's a bread that stands out in the center of the table, and when cut perpendicularly, the colors appear in full splendor. In 1988, baker Eduard Crespo intended them to be made from natural ingredients. It was the 1980s, and the basic revolution of claiming that the healthiest thing is to eat what nature offers, without additives, was yet to come. Visionary? "No, he always thought it should be that way," Georgina concludes.

The recipe for Sant Jordi bread, step by step

Pastry chef Eric Ortuño, from The Atelier from Barcelona, ​​​​reveals the steps to make Sant Jordi bread at home.

To make a quick sourdough starter

• 200 g of flour
• 100 g of mineral water
• 10 g of fresh yeast
• Pour the flour, mineral water, and fresh yeast into a bowl. Knead until well kneaded and form a ball. Let it rise, covered, for two hours at room temperature. You'll know the starter is ready when it has doubled in volume.
• Once fermented, divide it into three portions.

For the cheese bread

• 100 g of sourdough
• 200 g of flour
• 100 g of water
• 5 g of fresh yeast
• 4 g of salt
• 50 g of grated DO Ladrillo cheese
• Pour all the ingredients into a bowl. Knead for ten minutes. Then, let the resulting dough rest while you prepare the next dough. Cover with plastic wrap.

For the sobrasada bread

• 100 g of sourdough
• 200 g of flour
• 100 g of water
• 5 g of fresh yeast
• 4 g of salt
• 50 g of sobrasada
• Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and knead for ten minutes. Then, let the dough rest while you prepare the next dough. Cover with plastic wrap.

For the walnut bread

• 100 g of sourdough
• 150 g of flour
• 50 g of whole wheat flour
• 150 g of water
• 5 g of fresh yeast
• 4 g of salt
• 50 g of walnuts, finely chopped
• Knead all the ingredients together for about ten minutes. Then, let the resulting dough rest in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap.

Last steps

1. Roll out the cheese dough and the sobrasada dough separately.
2. Then, join them together and cut them into four pieces. Press them together so they stay securely fastened.
3. Next, roll out the walnut bread dough into a long stick. Then, using a pastry brush, moisten the four strips of the cheese and sobrasada dough.
4. Now you can wrap the cheese and sobrasada dough with the walnut bread dough stick.
5. Place the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place it in the oven. A baking tin also works well. Don't turn on the oven now, because the dough must rise for an hour and thirty minutes, or until you see that it has doubled in volume. To ensure proper rise in a non-heated oven, cover the dough.
6. After an hour and a half, you can bake the bread at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!