Desserts from El Salvador: Semita de Anana

Recipe of Semita de Anana  (Piña)

This is a favorite coffee cake in El Salvador.   Filled with delicious pineapple marmalade, it is rich and sweet and you can choose to use other sweet fillings for it also!  It will always taste good!

Ingredients

2/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of vegetable butter
1/3 cup of warm water
2 tablespoons of dry yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
3 beaten eggs

2 cups pineapple marmalade
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Procedure:

Mix the 1/3 cup of warm water with the yeast.  Add a pinch of sugar before sprinkling the yeast over the warm water.  Let it rest for some minutes.  Meanwhile prepare in a saucepan, a mixture with the milk, the butter and the sugar and salt, put it over the fire and stir it until the butter and sugar are melted.  Don’t let it boil.  Put it aside to cool off a little bit.
In a large bowl put the flour, add the yeast mixture, the warm milk mixture and the eggs. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon and make a dough..  Put it over a floured surface and knead well.  If you need extra flour for the kneading, use it.  Knead until the dough isn’t sticking to your hands.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl  (so that it will come out easily later on), cover it with a kitchen towel  and let it rest in a warm place in the kitchen or else over a bigger bowl with warm water in, under the dough bowl. You should leave it there a couple of hours, or until it doubles its size.
Bring it back to the floured surface, and knead it a little while more, and cut it in half.  Prepare a greased baking dish, roll on half of the dough and put it covering the base and the sides of this baking dish.

Filling:  mix the pineapple marmalade with the cinnamon, and cover all the dough in the baking pan with it.

Roll on the other half of the dough and cover the marmalade mixture.  Cut carefully all de borders, and seal them in different shapes or with a fork.  Knead again the remaining trimmings you cut before of the sides of the pan, roll them and cut long strips.
Paint the top of the Semita with the egg and the milk with a brush.  Then lay on top of that the strips making a pattern, crossing lines.  Paint those with the egg and milk also and cover it all with abundant sugar.
 
Let this Semita rest for a half hour, then take it to medium warm oven after poking the semita on top with a fork, making little holes so that it won’t puff.  Bake the Semita from 30 to 40 minutes or until it is golden on top.  Let it get cool before serving it.
Delicious after dinner with a cup of coffee!
Enjoy it!