Every year before Dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) on Jan. 6, brothers Salvador and Luis Rojas start preparing for the annual tradition of baking dozens of rosca de reyes, rings of sweet bread celebrating the arrival of the three kings bearing gifts for the baby Jesus.
Also known as the Epiphany, or the feast of lights – to commemorate the light of Jesus being revealed to the world – Three Kings Day is the 12th and final day of Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas – a term popularized in the widely-known holiday song – refers to the period between the birth of Jesus and the day the three kings (Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior) arrived in Bethlehem after following the North Star for 12 days.
For Salvador and Luis Rojas, memories of celebrating the Reyes Magos by baking the rosca de reyes for family celebrations date back to their childhood in El Salto, a city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. They brought their family trade and traditions with them from Mexico.
“We’ve known about this tradition since we were little kids in El Salto; it was always part of our family and community, every single year,” Salvador Rojas told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol.
The celebrations are typically gatherings of family and friends getting together to enjoy coffee, Mexican-style atole (a hot beverage made with corn dough) and the cutting of the rosca. The bread is round or oval in shape, is adorned with nuts or dried candied fruits (to symbolize the three kings’ crown jewels) and has miniature plastic baby figurines (representing Jesus) hidden inside. Getting a slice of rosca with a baby Jesus is reportedly good luck, and the individual is supposed to throw a party with tamales on Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas Day) on Feb. 2.
To keep up with the demand for rosca de reyes in the Sylmar neighborhood they serve, the Rojas brothers start baking and selling the bread rings at least three days before Three Kings Day. The third-generation panaderos (bakers) are co-owners of Villalongin Bakery, a small family business they took over when their father, Salvador Rojas Sr., retired 12 years ago. Their bakery – located inside Villalongin Market at 13947 Foothill Blvd. – sells Mexican-style pan dulce (sweet bread), and every January they make at least 300 rosca breads.
Although rosca recipes can vary from bakery to bakery or family to family, basic ingredients usually include flour, yeast, butter, milk, eggs, cinnamon, orange extract, dried fruits and sugar.
At the Villalongin Bakery, Salvador Rojas said he prefers using agave nectar over regular table sugar, a small difference that he believes makes their roscas taste naturally sweeter and more delicious – one of the many family baking traditions handed down to the brothers from their father, and to their father from their grandfather.
“I think sweet agave just tastes better – I think natural is almost always better,” he said.
Like many other bakeries, Villalongin Bakery sells rosca de reyes breads in three sizes – the small ones have three plastic babies, the medium ones have four and the large ones have six. While many chain supermarkets and big box stores like Costco start selling them a week or more before Jan. 6, Rojas said they don’t start baking them until a few days before the holiday.
“We don’t start making them too early, because we want to offer them freshly baked,” he said. “The roscas are a part of our culture that we’re sharing and people really enjoy them.”