Roscón de Reyes Pizza – King Cake Pizza
Roscón de Reyes that is directly translates to King’s ring but came to the English language for some obscure reason as king’s cake.
Well, maybe it isn’t as obscure as it is the traditional festive cake for those who celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings AKA Three Wise Men.
It’s maybe a bit unbelievable to face that Santa Claus is not the only one who supplies gifts for all the world but it’s true. In fact, Santa Claus is facing some quite though competition outside of the US from Baby Jesus who is covering large part of Europe and Latin America.
It’s not like Santa isn’t wanted there, it’s just makes more sense in terms of logistics. Santa visits the rest of the world on 6th December which is the day of Saint Nicholas, the protector of children, and brings some small gifts for all the good kids.
On Christmas Day Baby Jesus comes and leaves the presents under the tree so those kids have basically two days in December to receive gifts. Not to mention what amazing advent calendars are available nowadays from the cunning toy manufacturers like LEGO.
But the magic doesn’t stop here… or does it?
There are some countries where people didn’t feel the need to invent bizarre old fat man who gives presents to kids freely, in exchange of sitting on his lap or burden a newborn (Jesus) with lacking fine motor skills to wrap presents and sneak them under a tree.
In most Spanish speaking countries where the Bible was studied unconditionally and enforced mercilessly throughout the ages, people knew better than inventing or using Jesus unnecessarily. And why would they, when the Holy Bible has all the answers clearly written down for centuries.
When Jesus was born a star shone up in the sky as a token of the beginning of a new era. This very star guided the Three Kings to the newborn so they could visit Jesus. Their journey took 12 days and they arrived to their destination on 6th January which date is known as Epiphany in the Western cultures.
The Three Wise Men brought presents to the newborn which custom is still guarded and practiced nowadays with great passion among small and big folks alike.
On Epiphany Eve, the 5th January cities, towns and villages stop to take part in the celebration of Three Magic Kings and their companions’ arrival on the streets. During the parade an unbelievable amount of candies are thrown around to be hunted up by the eager hands while shouting Gaspar, Melchor or Balthazar.
As much as we would like, cakes aren’t being thrown around. The cakes are made for the Three Kings or rather for the family.
According to some countries’ traditions a dry bean and a figure is baked or just hid in the cake with a special meaning. Those who find the bean pay for the cake or organize next year’s party while those who find the present are named king of the celebration.
As many countries celebrate the kings with Three Kings Cake exact customs are vary so are the Roscón de Reyes. During the roughly 300 years of Roscón history many things has changed and an originally bread like dough with sugar on top has evolved to something that only in shapes resembles its roots.
Basically, nowadays everything could be a King’s Cake that comes in a ring shape, it doesn’t matter what’s in it. Sure enough, people think it differently who have been brought up on whip cream filled brioche with dried fruit bits on top.
Roscon de Reyes is a cake that everyone loves for one reason or the other and the same is true about pizza. And why not be a culinary rebel and make a pizza Roscón if we have the abilities to do so.
The only thing we need is a King’s cake shape tin which is basically a bundt cake form and we are almost done. The fact that this thing will be closer to a pull apart monkey bread with pizza topping is a minor inconvenience, we choose not to care about as long as we have the ring shape and the delicious pizza topping this pizza king cake rulez!
Ingredients:
Dough:
- ¼ cup / 50ml Milk
- ½ cup / 100ml lukewarm water
- 0.5 oz / 10g Fresh yeast
- 2½ cup / 300g Flour
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 1 Egg
Filling:
- 17 oz / 500g Tomatoes
- 6 Basil leaves (fresh)
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup / 100ml Olive oil
- 7 oz / 200g Cheese (topping)
How to make it:
Dough:
- Put the fresh yeast into half cup of lukewarm milk. Set it aside whilst preparing the other ingredients.
- Get a big bowl and put flour, sliced room temperature butter, egg and the lukewarm water in it.
- Pour the yeasty milk into a big bowl on top of the other ingredients.
- Knead the mixture well until it’s even and there’s no flour left on the edge of the bowl.
- Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for about an hour to rise. (We can put it in the 100°F / 40°C heated oven. Be careful not to turn the heat higher than that as it would kill the yeast so the dough didn’t rise.)
Filling:
- In the meantime, prepare the filling. Chop tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and olive oil in a blender.
- Pour it into a saucepan, bring it to boil and simmer it for half an hour while stirring occasionally.
- Take it off heat and let it cool down somewhat. Pouring hot sauce on the dough would make it gooey and so hard to handle that it would ruin our day.
(For more detailed instructions with photos check out our tomato sauce recipe at the Low Carb Condiments.)
Assembly:
- After an hour waiting take dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured work surface.
- Roll it into a 12 inch / 30cm square. Flouring underneath the dough is important as this coating will prevent it to stick down.
- Cut the rolled out dough into 3×3 equal squares.
- Spoon the preferably room temperature tomato sauce into each small squares.
- Quickly make little dough balls out of them by grabbing the opposite corners and pressing them lightly together
When making the balls, use a plastic scraper to help getting the dough off the worktop if it’s necessary. The dough is quite soft so try not to pull it more than necessary. - Place the dough balls into the round cake form not too tightly next to each other with the recently closed side down.
- Brush the leftover tomato sauce on top.
- Grate cheese and sprinkle it on as well.
- Turn on oven to 350°F / 180°C.
- Whilst heating up the oven set the dough aside in a warm place to rest/raise for another 10 minutes.
- Finally put the tray into the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until cheese gets golden brown.
- Serve it warm straight out of the oven.
When making the balls, use a plastic scraper to help getting the dough off the worktop if it’s necessary. The dough is quite soft so try not to pull it more than necessary.
Enjoy!
Roscón de Reyes Pizza - King Cake Pizza
Ingredients
Dough:
- ¼ cup / 50ml Milk
- ½ cup / 100ml lukewarm water
- 0.5 oz / 10g Fresh yeast
- 2½ cup / 300g Flour
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 1 Egg
Filling:
- 17 oz / 500g Tomatoes
- 6 Basil leaves fresh
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup / 100ml Olive oil
- 7 oz / 200g Cheese topping
Instructions
Dough:
- Put the fresh yeast into half cup of lukewarm milk. Set it aside whilst preparing the other ingredients.
- Get a big bowl and put flour, sliced room temperature butter, egg and the lukewarm water in it.
- Pour the yeasty milk into a big bowl on top of the other ingredients.
- Knead the mixture well until it’s even and there’s no flour left on the edge of the bowl.
- Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for about an hour to rise. (We can put it in the 100°F / 40°C heated oven. Be careful not to turn the heat higher than that as it would kill the yeast so the dough didn't rise.)
Filling:
- In the meantime, prepare the filling. Chop tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and olive oil in a blender.
- Pour it into a saucepan, bring it to boil and simmer it for half an hour while stirring occasionally.
- Take it off heat and let it cool down somewhat. Pouring hot sauce on the dough would make it gooey and so hard to handle that it would ruin our day.
- (For more detailed instructions with photos check out our tomato sauce recipe at the Low Carb Condiments.)
Assembly:
- After an hour waiting take dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured work surface and roll it into a 12 inch / 30cm square. Flouring underneath the dough is important as this coating will prevent it to stick down.
- Cut the rolled out dough into 3x3 equal squares.
- Spoon the preferably room temperature tomato sauce into each small squares and make little dough balls out of them. When making the balls, use a plastic scraper to help getting the dough off the worktop if it’s necessary. The dough is quite soft so try not to pull it more than necessary.
- Place the dough balls into the round cake form not too tightly next to each other.
- Brush the leftover tomato sauce on top.
- Grate cheese and sprinkle it on as well.
- Turn on oven to 350°F / 180°C.
- Whilst heating up the oven set the dough aside in a warm place to rest/raise for another 10 minutes.
- Finally put the tray into the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until cheese gets golden brown.
- Serve it warm straight out of the oven.
Pin now, Enjoy later!
It’s a pity I’ve came to see this a bit too late. Maybe next year!
This looks like a really interesting thing to try! I so love pizza!!!
This is an awesome way to shake up the festive menu!