Enjoying a sweet like the ones from before from time to time is a real pleasure, so we can take advantage of these holidays to prepare a bica de Trivesa classic in Galician confectionery, and especially from Ourense, the province where A Proba de Trives is located, the municipality that gives it its name and where it is most prepared.
This bica, unlike other biscuits and even its relative, Laza’s bica blanca, whose recipe we had already brought you some time ago in DAP, has the particularity that it does not contain chemical yeast, an impeller or baking powder and It is made with a preferment type of bread dough made the day before; In addition, cow’s lard is used instead of butter, although in the absence of it, it will also be delicious with the classic butter.
Certainly, it is not well known what its origin was, but it is known that its existence in the 19th centurymoment that the bica was already prepared in the houses in times of celebration.
Has a texture of a dense sponge cake and a sugared, toasted top crust. The concept of bica is so important in the province of Ourense that it even has its own festival, since in A Pobra de Trives they celebrate the last weekend of July “Bica de Trives Festival” celebrating a popular meal and the consequent tasting of its bica mantecada.
Today we bring you the recipe that we believe is closest to the original bica and which is the one presented to us by our old colleague Pamela from the Unodedos blog in her book Postres y otras dulcerías, a wonderful compilation of gourmet preparations, among which we find many classic recipes. Galician.
To do this bica the ideal flour is bread-making or medium-strength. If we do not have it, we can make a mixture of flours as follows: 70% strength flour and 30% pastry flour.
We will start with the preferment. We will put the preferment flour in a bowl, making a hole in the center in the shape of a volcano and add the water at about 35ºC with the yeast dissolved in it. We form a ball, cover and let it rest for at least an hour, we must see the preferment that has risen, spongy and as if with gas inside. We booked.
For the dough we will have the lard or butter at room temperature and we put it in a bowl, we add the sugar and we beat it until we get a whitish cream. Add in small pieces the 250 grams of the prefermentand we incorporate it well into the dough so that there are no lumps of the preferment.
Add the eggs one by one, until they are incorporated into the mixture. Add the lemon zest, and the flour passed through a sieve. We mix everything with a spatula until we achieve a homogeneous mass. We preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius with heat up and down.
We arrange the dough in a rectangular mold lined with baking paper about 30 by 20 centimeters. Smooth out the dough and sprinkle with the 50 grams of sugar and cinnamon powder.
Bake for 50 minutes or until when poking the bica with a toothpick, it comes out clean. Let cool on a rack.
Desserts and other sweet shops (LAROUSSE – Illustrated / Practical Books – Gastronomy)
With what to taste the bica de Trives
The ideal is to taste this delicious Bica de Trives with a glass of coffee liqueur after eating, but it is also an ideal sweet to enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate any afternoon, especially during Carnival.
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