The Rosca

"Rosca" is Ladino for “round.” It is challah dough rolled flat, spread with yummy ingredients: sugar, cinnamon, nuts, dried fruit if you like, then rolled into a snake, coiled and baked in a round pan. It's kind of a Sephardic version of babka or cinnamon bread. It results in great nibbling all Shabbat and makes for the most decadent French toast on Sunday morning.

1 pound challah dough -see The Challah Recipe

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 cup chopped nuts, optional

1/4 cup dried diced fruit, optional

1 egg, beaten

1. On a flat floured surface, roll dough into a large rectangle 1/4 inch thick. Spread cinnamon, sugar, nuts and fruit, if using, over entire surface, leaving about 1” border on all four sides.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place coil in a round, well greased cake pan, seam side down, and allow to rise in a draft free place until double in size, 30 minutes to one hour.

You can read more about other Sephardic bread, including my grandmother's rosca, in Maggie Glezer's book A Blessing of Bread.

For the rosca I make each week, I prefer to use the Pereg brand cinnamon that I purchase in the shuk at Machene Yehuda, but it's also available online.