Bath or Bitumen - a Pinedo recipe

I finally had a batch of roscas that I wanted to decorate like it was for Rosca de Reyes.  Not a big ring as is traditional, but a batch of 16 individual rolls or buns.  Click here to see that post.

I wanted to try Miss Pinedo's recipe of Bath or Bitumen -- a sugar and egg white icing.  She offers three recipes on pages 27-8.

My Translation

I was, at first, confused by the word "betum", but then I realized it was probably meant to be "bitún", which translates to "bitumen".  That is a glaze or icing that will bathe the biscuits, which is what these recipes describe.  A "pucha" is a sweet bread from Oaxaca.

I chose to use the third recipe, "Ditto", because I could make it with only one egg white.  I felt that would be plenty of icing.  I recognize it as a version of Royal Icing, with the exception of using granulated sugar and not powdered sugar.  It is possible Miss Pinedo intended the reader to use powdered sugar, but since she did not specify it, I used regular granulated sugar.

My Redaction

1 egg white

1 pound sugar

the juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Beat the egg white until stiff, then add in the sugar gradually while still beating.  If (when!) the mixture starts seeming dry because there is so much sugar, add the lemon juice.  I did about half and then waited to see if it needed more later.  It did.

Starting to look dry

Done.  Moist, not dry.

The Verdict

Once the bitumen was done, I put some into a decorator bag while trying out various tips, just for fun.

I expected to decorate a few roscas with dried fruit, nuts, and candied pineapple, but not very many.  So I just played with the bitumen.

The first try.  The icing stuck well.

Play time!

I tasted just the bitumen.  It was sweet but gritty because of the sugar crystals.  I could taste the lemon, and it was an excellent flavor in the mix.  I had no trouble using the various tips, so the bitumen flowed out of them nicely.

The decorations are raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots (sliced), and glacéed pineapple that I made by simmering chunks of canned pineapple in a syrup made of pineapple juice and some sugar until the chunks were translucent.  

After the roscas were decorated, they dried on the counter for a few hours.  The bitumen firmed and dried, and then I tasted a rosca.

The bitumen was a good addition to the rosca.  It made it a sweet bread, more like a dessert than a dinner roll.  The bitumen was still gritty, but that was not a textural problem.   I could have tried her technique in the first recipe, which required dissolving the sugar into the egg whites and a little water before beating the mix.

One problem I did have was that the bitumen didn't stick to the bread much after it dried.  So taking a bite through the icing and the bread meant that most of the icing fell off.  Perhaps it would have stuck better if I had smeared it on (using a feather or not!) instead of setting it on with the decorating tip.  Oh well, that made it fun to eat -- picking up the pieces of icing with my fingers as I was taking a bite of the bread.  It felt like I was a kid again.

Also, the leftover icing that went into the refrigerator softened even more, almost to the point of being fluffy.  I spread it on some cookies -- thickly! -- which was also very tasty.  The roscas that were stored in a covered container also had their bitumen soften, which was fine as it didn't fall off any more.  It was like having a thin, lemony sprinkling of sugar on top.  

Success!  

This has been an adventure, but I'm so glad it ended with a successful food item.  I would use the dough again (with the addition of the orange) to make a true ring shape for Roscas de Reyes, and I would try this bitumen recipe with powdered sugar for the decoration.  

It was fun to experience what Miss Pinedo might have done 120 years ago!