Agege bread (soft home-style variation)
This softer home-style Agege bread uses a scalded flour paste, an enriched yeast dough and a 9×5-inch loaf pan, with rolls from the extra dough.
Modern method
Mollete de Antequera
mollete de Antequera · mollete
A soft, flattened wheat roll from Antequera, baked pale and often toasted for breakfast or filled as a snack.
A soft roll with a protected name
Mollete de Antequera is a wheat roll shaped as a flattened, irregular oval and baked lightly. The European product specification describes a soft, moist crumb, pale ivory crust, low profile and traces of flour from shaping. It permits low-strength wheat flour, water, sea salt and biological yeast; sourdough may supplement or replace the yeast. Wheat bran is an optional declared variation under the specification.
The registered name refers to a product made in the defined area under inspection and traceability controls. The application sets out commercial stages such as mechanical mixing, dividing and rounding, resting, shaping, controlled proofing, short baking, cooling and packaging. It specifies flour strength and finished-product characteristics that a home baker cannot establish from ordinary flour labels or visual judgment. This kitchen recipe is a separate home adaptation; making it does not confer IGP status.
The specification’s historical account cites records and makes a cautious suggestion about earlier flatbreads, but it does not prove a direct continuous lineage from medieval bread. It describes Antequera production becoming established at scale in the mid-20th century and links the pale, soft roll with breakfast, especially after toasting.
The EL PAÍS home batch
Miriam García’s EL PAÍS recipe adapts an earlier formula by Eulalia W. Petit and simplifies its flour choice to ordinary bread flour. It makes eight rolls from 500 g flour, 325 ml water, 10 g salt, 3 g dried yeast or 10 g fresh yeast, and 50 ml extra-virgin olive oil. The olive oil is part of this home formula; it is not listed among the IGP application’s permitted basic ingredients.
The method uses short kneading intervals separated by rests to work the oil into a tacky dough without adding more flour. It relies on the dough doubling for the first rise and gives at least an hour for the shaped pieces to expand. Those are source cues rather than fixed fermentation limits, so room conditions affect the schedule. The flattened shape and restrained bake aim for a tender, pale roll instead of a crisp, deeply browned loaf.
The source places the rolls on a baking stone or oven floor at 220°C and bakes them for 12–15 minutes, until they begin to take on color. It does not give a validated internal-temperature or storage control. Cool the rolls on a rack; the article suggests eating them plain or toasted and filled.
Sources for this section
History
The product application recounts documentation from 1539 and 1775 and says commercial production became established at scale in Antequera from the mid-20th century. Its suggestion of a medieval Al-Andalus antecedent is explicitly remote and does not establish direct continuity.
Ingredients
Yield 8 rolls, approximately 110 g each · Scaling: source batch only
Bread flourdough
500 g
Waterdough
325 mL
Saltdough
10 g
Dried baker’s yeast (optional)dough
3 g
Fresh baker’s yeast (optional)dough
10 g
50 mL
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Raw flour and dough
Flour can carry harmful bacteria; uncooked dough should not be tasted.
Hazard sourceBake the rolls before eating; keep raw flour and dough away from ready-to-eat food, and wash hands, utensils and work surfaces after handling.
Control sourceDo not taste raw flour or dough. The source gives no validated storage period for this home batch; the product-quality period mentioned in the IGP application is not a safety limit.
- Whisk the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the water and either the dried or fresh yeast; mix and knead for 1 minute. Cover and rest for 10 minutes.
- Add the olive oil. Knead for 1 minute, rest for 10 minutes, and repeat for at least 3–4 cycles, until the dough is smooth and elastic. It will remain tacky; resist adding extra flour.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave until doubled; the source gives no fixed time for this rise.
- Turn the dough onto a well-floured or semolina-dusted counter and press out the gas. Roll it into a log and cut it into 8 even pieces, about 110 g each. Turn each piece so its cut face points up, then press it with your fingers into a flattened slipper-shaped oval.
- Dust the cut faces with flour or semolina and arrange the flattened rolls on a well-floured cloth. Cover with plastic and leave until they have roughly doubled; this takes at least 1 hour in the source.
- Heat the oven to 220°C with a baking stone or the oven floor as the baking surface. Transfer the rolls carefully, turning them onto a paper-lined tray, and bake in two batches for 12–15 minutes, until they have risen and are just beginning to color.
- Move the rolls to a rack and cool fully. Eat as they are or split and toast before filling.
Conditions
Yield8 rolls, approximately 110 g each
Places
Antequera, Málaga, Andalusia; announcement includes Fuente de Piedra in elaboration/packing area.
Documented preparation · Locality evidenceJunta registration-announcement account; this is not an unsupported origin claim.
Related
Related in the family
Anadama
Anadama is a New England yeast loaf made with wheat flour, cornmeal and molasses. Scalded cornmeal enriches the dough, while molasses lends sweetness and a dark crust; it is especially good toasted or beside soup and baked beans.
Bagel
A yeast-raised wheat ring shaped from a firm dough, briefly boiled and baked. This source-batch formula gives a gently malted crust and a chewy crumb.
Baguette with overnight poolish
Three long, crusty wheat loaves made with an overnight yeast poolish, shaped by hand and baked with steam for a crisp crust.
Bajan salt bread
A lightly salted, yeast-raised Barbadian roll, baked in a dozen-roll home batch and often split for cutters.
Belgian pistolet
A crisp Belgian roll made from a supplier’s Croc-flour dough, mixed by hand or machine, proofed in rounds and baked with steam.
Bialy
Bialys are soft, yeasted wheat rolls baked without boiling, each shaped with an onion-filled central depression instead of a hole.
Birote salado estilo Guadalajara (Cardamomo home method)
A measured, commercial-yeast home method for Guadalajara-style birote salado, with a six-hour preferment, shaped rolls and a two-temperature steam bake. This formula contains no egg.
Community
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Share what you made
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Sources
European Commission, Official JournalProtected product application
Application for registration of “Mollete de Antequera”Protected product identity and commercial process stages
application-reported historic account and area
uses/storage claims as applicant-stated
Cited in: A soft roll with a protected name
Miriam García, EL PAÍS / El ComidistaHome adaptation
Molletes de AntequeraEL PAÍS home batch quantities and ordered method
contemporary shape, breakfast/merienda and toasting context
the article’s note that origin is difficult to trace
Cited in: The EL PAÍS home batch
Guía RepsolHome adaptation from local baker · Serving/context description
Receta de molletes de Antequera (“La Molletería”)Báez-attributed formula quantities, timing and ordered home method
source-attributed local shape and toasting discussion
Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Agricultura, Pesca y Desarrollo RuralRegional government registration announcement; applicant history summary
La IGP Mollete de Antequera da un nuevo paso hacia su inscripción en el registro comunitario de figuras de calidadAnnouncement locates origin in Antequera and elaboration/packing in Antequera and Fuente de Piedra.
It recounts an Al-Andalus antecedent, a 1539 “molletes reales” archive item, a 1775 commercial record, and mid-20th-century growth.
It associates toasted mollete with breakfast.
Cited in: A soft roll with a protected name
U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationFood safety
Handling Flour Safely: What You Need to KnowFlour is raw and can carry harmful bacteria; do not taste raw flour or dough; cooking is needed for foods made with flour; clean hands, utensils and work surfaces after handling raw flour.