CON LAS MANOS EN LA MASA

Adding flour to the levadura madre, the starter dough for making bread. We are preparing dough for hornazos, bread rolls with eggs, a traditional Easter snack.

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Con las manos en la masa - Hands kneading dough to make traditional Easter breads, hornazos.

Once the dough is kneaded until it is no longer sticky, Antonio Garcia shows the particpants how to pinch off pieces and shape them into small balls to enclose a raw egg.

Each person gets to shape the hornazos. Most are simple little rolls; others are boats, baskets, turtles. In my village, the hornozos are made of basic bread dough with a little matalahúga, aniseed. In other towns, they may have oil or lard, sugar or honey added.

Many hands roll out the dough.

The rolls are covered and left in a warm place to rise. Here, an electric heater underneath is the heat source.

Antonio puts the first tray of hornazos into the wood-fired oven. This oven is similar to the traditional bread ovens.

Fresh out of the oven - a tray of hornazos, bread rolls with eggs.

The Mijas village tourism department gives away bags of hornazos to visitors on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

Grist for the political mill. The current mayor of Mijas, Angel Nozal (Partido Popular), who is running for re-election next month, dumps wheat in the mill for grinding and gets his manos en la masa as well.

Freshly-ground wheat flour.

Hornazos, a typical Easter bread, with egg baked in the dough.