How to Make Calaberros Ricos
Serves: 8-10
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 25 mins
Ingredients needed to make Calaberros Ricos:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 egg whites
- 16 french bread slices, each about ½’’ thick
- ½ cup whole almonds, coarsely chopped
- ¼ + 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup strong brewed coffee
- Four 4’’ cinnamon sticks
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 cup water
- Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
- 4-5 cups packaged dulce de leche ice cream
Cooking instructions for Calaberros Ricos:
- Add ¼ cup of granulated sugar into milk and stir well until the former dissolves completely.
- Immerse the french bread slices into the sweetened milk and set them aside until they soak most of the liquid.
- Strain the mixture through a colander and set aside.
- Add the egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk them at medium speed initially and then increasing the speed to high until they form stiff yet soft peaks.
- Whisk the egg yolks separately with the electric mixer for about 3-5 minutes at high speed, until they turn pale-yellowish in colour.
- Pour the beaten egg yolks into the egg whites and fold them together into a uniform mixture.
- Pour oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, until it is ½’’ deep and heat it over moderately high heat.
- Dip the soaked bread slices into the egg blend, one after another and until it is completely coated with the latter.
- Reduce the heat and lower the bread slices into the hot oil to fry in batches, for a couple of minutes it until they turn golden brown.
- Drain off the extra grease with a paper towel and set aside on a plate.
- Stir in a cup of sugar in water and pour the mixture into a medium saucepan.
- Empty the cup of brown sugar into it and heat the mixture, while stirring at times, until the sugar dissolves.
- Simmer the syrup over moderate heat and add the spices.
- Continue to stir and cook the syrup for about 8 minutes or until it thickens to resemble the consistency of a maple syrup.
- Pass it through a fine mesh to strain and throw away the whole spices.
- Return the strained syrup to the pan and stir in the coffee as well as the almonds.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower heat to simmer it for about 4 minutes, uncovered, until the syrup reduces to about 1 ½ cups.
- Warm up your oven to 325 degrees F.
- Arrange half of the fried slices in a medium baking dish and drizzle half of the prepared sugar syrup over it.
- Repeat the process until the bread slices are used up and bake it in the oven for about half an hour or until the surface turns golden brown.
- Serve warm with a dollop of ice cream.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
